Marc Siegel, Professor for Film Studies, will question the topic of this year’s kuratieren-programme from the perspective of counter-publics with his talk Why Gossip. His lecture attempts to understand gossip not only as formless and ephemeral, but also of producing this ephemerality in and with images. The online lecture is the first in a series of talks that discursively accompany the GOSSIP programme.

“During the heady period of AIDS activism and the development of a burgeoning queer counterpublic in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the United States, I first became aware of the importance of gossip as a means of constructing intimacy and fabricating possibilities for personal and collective change. Inspired by the work of feminist and queer literary scholars and philosophical reflections on gossip and rumor, I sought to explore how this ephemeral discourse could be thought of not only as a means of orally disseminating indiscreet information, but also as a means of doing so with and through images. By tracing the origins of my thinking about gossip, this talk will introduce the concept of a Gossip of Images.”

Marc Siegel is a Professor of Film Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. His research focuses on experimental film and gender/queer studies. His upcoming book A Gossip of Images will be published by Duke University Press. He is a member of the Academy of World Arts in Cologne and co-founder of the Berlin-based artist collective CHEAP.

The lecture will be introduced by Agnieszka Roguski. Afterwards, the discussion will be open to all participants. The event will be held in English.

The talk was recorded and can be watched on our YouTube or Vimeo channel.