Image: Deep Trash Romance. Poster image: Nicola Hunter: Motherfucker, 2017

Giulia Casalini is the co-director of the queer-feminist arts organisation CUNTemporary / Arts Feminism Queer and is an independent curator and producer based in London. She has been a producer in residence at the Live Art Development Agency in 2017 and is a Live Art Associate UK. She has been curating and producing Deep Trash since its inception in 2012. Here she writes for Run Riot on her work.

Together with my partner Diana Georgiou, we initiated CUNTemporary / Arts Feminism Queer in 2012 as a response to the lack of visibility for queer and feminist art practices in London. With CUNTemporary, we wanted to offer a platform through which new forms of collectivity and solidarity could emerge. Our monthly newsletter, which lists a range of queer and/or feminist events happening in London, was a way to not only call attention to the various creative, theoretical and activist forms out there, but also to get people to congregate in the spaces where they take place. We have seen an incremental rise of queer and feminist events in London since we started promoting them and we think that our newsletter has contributed significantly to this increase.

Image: Jonny Woo at Deep Trash: Royal Trash, 2017. Photo by Orlando Myxx

Deep Trash was born as a fundraiser night for our sister organisation Archivio Queer Italia. At that time, in 2014, the event was called Deep Trash Italia and all the events had a link to ‘italianness’ or specifically invited Italian artists. We then shifted to the more comprehensive title ‘Deep Trash’ that could be applied to various concepts and geographies: every Deep Trash has a different theme, with a completely new set of international artists. With the upcoming event, we are immersed into all that is related to romance, love, intimacy, pornography, eroticism… of course from a queer-feminist perspective.

Trailer for Deep Trash in the Underworld, 2017. Directed by Kassandra Powell. Video Still: Ivan Monteiro aka Tropikahl Pussy.
Everyone has different ideas and tastes regarding their experience of a good night out. For us with Deep Trash it was important to create a bridge between art and nightlife in a way that wasn’t just about music or art. We envisioned a space that was not restricted to the tame working hours of museums and art galleries and that could engage people who might not necessarily attend art-related events. I must say that Deep Trash is also one of the most interesting ‘anthropological experiments’ I’ve ever experienced; maybe because of the music, the artists or the different themes, each event brings together a completely different crowd. The event promotes inclusivity but we do not tolerate racism, homophobia or harassment of any kind.

Image: The Great White Males at Deep Trash: Royal Trash, 2017. Photo by Thomas Hensher

As for most of our projects, whether in London or abroad, we try to keep a transnational perspective in the events we pull together. And so, we are keen to provide artistic mobility to artists who might have had little exposure in London. In fact, before every Deep Trash, we launch an international open call in order to include a multiplicity of perspectives. For a fairer selection and less elitist approach to what qualifies as art, we accept applications from any artistic background, medium or practice, and the artists are then shortlisted by an external and internal jury. For the past few Deep Trashes, we have received approximately 200 applications from 5 continents and selected more than 40 for each event. Furthermore, we also invited specific artists and theorists that we feel have a strong relationship to the theme, for instance, for this session on romance we invited keynote speaker Dominic Johnson or our headline artist Nicola Hunter.

Image: Mette Sterre at Performing the Occult, Queen Mary University of London, 2017. Photo by Loredana Denicola

Deep Trash has changed its format since its first episode, and became a more articulated event (a sort of ‘mini festival’) which follows higher standards of production. This is both thanks to our hard-working team at CUNTemporary, and a grant received by Arts Council England at the beginning of 2017 to develop our last three events. We have also evolved our relationship with academia by hosting a symposium before each event to introduce the themes explored during the live art nights. All symposiums are video recorded and can be accessed on our YouTube channel.

Image: Lady Vendredi at Deep Trash in the Underworld, 2017. Photo by Thomas Hensher

The next episode of DEEP TRASH will take place on Saturday the 10th of February at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club. With 14 performances and over 50 artists showing on 2 floors/3 rooms in one night, DEEP TRASH Romance will be the biggest event we have organised. I can only give a sneak peak of the performances, which will include: Oh Yes Oh No by artist Louise Orwin; the ‘Mystical Femmes’ Katy Jalili & Tallulah Haddon; Philip Bedwell’s endurance and pain-based work; Rachael Young, with a one-to-one cruising interaction; circus-trained Sadiq Sadiq, with a complex pole performance-installation piece about Muslim gay identity; a ‘post-romantic’ show by drag artist Stephen Eyre; the duo Tom Thom, performing queer love magic on stage and around the venue; VORTESSA (Lady Helena Vortex & Miss Giovanna Maria Casetta) presenting an intimate portrait of aging bodies and friendship; Ivan Lupi, flown from New Zealand, who will open his tattoo-wound and ask the public to take fingerprints of it; Italian drag artist Senith on stage; porn actress and activist Slavina performing live with AV projections; a feminist subversion of Brazilian romantic dances by Flaviana Xavier Antunes Sampaio; to end with Nicola Hunter, who will premiere her new work Motherfucker. Moreover, throughout the night there will be free ear piercings by Jen Smethurst and plenty of other UK-based and international names complementing the event, with a very rich art exhibition and a 1h30min long looped video screening. The last two events sold out, so I recommend getting your tickets fast!

CUNTemporary / Arts Feminism Queer
cuntemporary.org

Deep Trash: ‘Romance’
at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club
20:00-02:00, Saturday 10 February 2018
Info: cuntemporary.org