Nudity for the Sake of Exposure

Katrina Daschner, returning to the Summeracademy after her successful class last year, used her lunchtalk to show her now completed film trilogy. Briefly showing the first two parts that were already known to recidivists from last year, Hafenperlen (harbour pearls) and Aria de Mustang that both feature burlesque scenes starring herself and others watched by a queer choir that displays different reactions. In the newly completed third part, Flaming Flamingos, the stage remains empty aside from spinning objects, leaving the action to the choir that, hidden by long streams of fake hair and dressed in red, delves into a giant make-out session.

She also shows images from her club burlesque brutal in Vienna, of the different performers, explaining their names and backgrounds and how their performances come together. Making a point to set burlesque, or rather neoburlesque, aside from Striptease, she says it's more like a tease, playing with the act of exposure rather than it being an up-front dance to stimulate the audience. Having first encountered the medium in New York in 2006, she says she quickly got interested. "When I perform" she says with a smile "of course I get stage-fright, but once I'm up there it fades fast ... I love doing this after all."

Another big part of her work is the role and image of the femme in queer culture, one that is interesting to her as "she's not that out there and obvious, so it's a lot harder for her." Katrina Daschner is thus on the forefront of helping to break the image of the tomboy lesbian, opening new awareness for women who simply want to love women and don't feel like shaving half their head to state so to the rest of the world.

Most of the audience left her lunchtalk deep in thought and still a bit befuddled by the images they had just seen. It makes one realise how free art has become, being able to show graphic scenes without once being questioned, and be thankful to Katrina Daschner for not using this freedom for cheap fame or thrills, but to convey an actual message. [mp]