Collectivity, solidarity, intersectionality: No Play is a “feminist training camp“ to prompt action and exchange across different disciplines

May 17 – Organized by six Berliners, No Play is a queer-feminist reaction to the current upswing of fascism threatening Europe. The name suggests that it’s time to get to work, and it’s also meant as rejection of theatricality in order to tackle reality. For their month-long camp at nGbK, the core group (Freja Bäckman, Enna Gerin, Merja Hannikainen, Annika Högner, Vappu Jalonen and Clara López Menéndez) has rounded up around 30 participants from various backgrounds, including a film and video distributor, the founder of a radio station, community organizers, activists and artists.

No Play is intended as a site of learning, cross-pollination and intensified action. Some elements will be on display throughout the camp’s duration, while some are scheduled performances and workshops, including a sleepover on the night of June 18 led by the Feminist Health Care Group Berlin. There’s also the Feminist Repair Café: “Participants can bring electrical devices that need fixing, stuff you would have at home, like headphones, a mixer for baking or an electric toothbrush,“ Bäckman told SIEGESSÄULE. “The idea is to learn things by doing them yourself. The Café is also there to question our perception of what is broken and what can still be used.“

But can No Play fix the political conditions plaguing Europe? “There are myriad feminist positions within our current struggles, combat and aid,“ says López Menéndez. “We are facilitating a space in which these different positions can strategize to make our methods and political traction more effective.“ Högner adds: “It’s also important to be aware of abuses of the concept by all kinds of right-wing forces to propagate their racist agendas,“ referring to the sexual assaults on New Year’s Eve in Cologne as an example. “Plenty of horrendous conservatives and neo-fascists suddenly proclaimed themselves ‘feminist’, but they were instrumentalizing an absurd selective idea of equality in order to spread xenophobia. This is part of what we need to fight, and at the training camp we will work on strategies to do so.“

Joey Hansom

No Play, May 21 – Jun. 24, nGbK (Opening: May 20, 19:00)