A vibrant figure in Brooklyn's queer scene, Colin Self now has firm footing in Berlin. The self-described "sacred clown" juggles creative disciplines and will be making noise this weekend for 'Everything Fits in the Room' at District Berlin

Jan. 17, 2017 – Colin Self has been a familiar figure within Brooklyn's queer arts scene for years, whether as part of the radical drag troupe Chez Deep (which also counts Hari Nef and Alexis Penney as members), writing operas, choreographing stage pieces or soundtracking runways. Now Berliners are getting a taste of his creative juices. “A lot of my collaborators are living here – 2016 was the first year I spent more time here than I did in New York. It happened by chance,” Self tells SIEGESSÄULE. “I don't even like saying that I 'moved' to Berlin. It's just where I am at this point in my life.” He is cheerfully noncommittal. “It's a really productive environment for me. New York offers a lot of fire and inspiration, and I have a strong sense of family there, but in Berlin I'm really able to hunker down and have some alone time to really foster my practice.” He also mentions the high cost of living in New York, and the available cultural funding in Europe as two factors that pulled him to this continent.

One major collaborator in Berlin is electronic producer Holly Herndon. Colin sang on one song for her acclaimed 2015 album Platform, and their rapport led to more work together, and ultimately Self became an integral part of her live performance along with her partner and collaborator Mat Dryhurst. Last summer, Radiohead invited the trio to support them on their European tour. “It was bananas. We were like, 'Oh my God!' It was an incredible learning experience for us, expanding my sense of potential – what could happen in the years ahead,” Colin says with a glow. “When you see an audience at a Radiohead concert, you understand how many lives you can change just by making a song. That was my biggest takeaway from it all.”

Currently, Colin Self is part of Everything Fits in the Room, a performance commissioned by Haus der Kulturen der Welt and Hebbel am Ufer for this month's Utopian Realities festival, dedicated to the feminist Russian revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai. Simone Aughterlony and Jen Rosenblit asked him and Miguel Guierrez to create the “soundbody”. “It's a very process-oriented collaboration,” Self explains. “In our artist residences we have been exploring our relationship to a variety of materials, objects and sounds” related to texts by Kollontai. “She had radical perspectives about familial structures and women's roles in them.” Guirrez and Self were originally brought on board simply to create the music, but during the exploratory research period, their roles evolved into a much more integrated role as performers onstage.

Despite his web of collaborations, Self says, “I'm at a point in my life where I'm really figuring out who I am as an individual – being comfortable by myself, stepping outside of communities.” He will premiere a new solo performance in May at the donaufestival in Austria, and he hopes someone will bring it back to Berlin, too. The corresponding album will be released in the fall. But don't get the impression that he is entirely Self-obsessed: “Holly, Mat and I will be touring again. We have some new music, working with a choir.”

Joey Hansom

Everything Fits in the Room
Jan. 19-22, 20:00
District Berlin