"School of Disobedience"

3 propositions for Queer Budapest

art form

  • ​​"School of Disobedience" is an experimental, anti-canonical and radical Performance Art School and Fight Club, only for women.
  • Based on critical pedagogy, empowerment methods and guerilla tactics, the school helps participants achieve political consciousness through the regular practice of creating, fighting, protesting, resisting and revolting.
  • Mixing creation, research, education and activism, "School of Disobedience" is a socially and politically engaged sustainable community art project at the intersection of social choreography and queer feminist methodologies.
  • “School of Disobedience” is a new form of political resistance, an anti-fast art, an apology for slowness, a dazzling, passionate and generous platform for invisible actions and sustainable changes.

proposition 1: 
Daily school + Performances

Join the School of Disobedience either as a participant or as a spectator. Defy norms, undermine tropes, express criticism of structural and ideological concerns! RESIST, UNLEARN, REVOLT!
Participants
Anna ADAM, Julia Eszter GAAL, Rebeka Petra KISS, Eva MORA
Day 1
  • Morning class: “Desire Club: How to enjoy your pussy” - Ongoing (between 10-13:00) / Only for women
This sensual body fitness will allow you to take care of your intimate wellbeing, get to know yourself on a deeper level, connect to your body, open and energise your sexual centers. Following a short introduction and discussion, you will do creative exercises (writing, moving, grooving...), imagine vagina performances, build your intimate muscles, have a total pelvic floor trip, find links between desire, heart, mind, body and spirit. Technical needs: min. 60m2 empty space + music (techno)
Photos
  • Evening performance: “sorry not sorry” - 40 min / Open for everyone
"sorry not sorry" was created in a particular political context in Hungary, in which religion becomes a more and more important argument in public debates in order to express and legitimize homophobic views. The performance explores the impact and the heritage of Biblical teachings on sexuality in today’s Hungary, with attention to the relation between contemporary religious consciousness and gender identity. “Even if Wester-European spectators live predominantly in a society which has freed itself from the tenets and hegemony of the church, the political reality in Hungary is a very different one. To produce a piece about sin, pleasure and sexual diversity within the most conservative of structures requires a great deal of courage and tenacity.” - said the Jury of “ARENA of the young arts Festival” 2019. Technical needs: min. 60m2 empty space + music
Photos, trailer
DAY 2
  • Morning class: “Fight Club: Resist! Unlearn! Revolt!” - Ongoing (between 10-13:00) / Open for everyone
Through the practice of battle, fight, physical movement improvisation, this “Fight Club” encourages you to raise your voice, echo freely the broader socio-political context, challenge hegemonic class, gender, normative behaviors, and dominant ideologies, develop your capacities to resist, protest, revolt, fight against oppression: make a first action towards changes.
Technical needs: min. 60m2 empty space + music (techno)
Photos
  • Evening performance: “UTOPIA/DYSTOPIA” - 40 min / Open for everyone
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's new legislation bans any so-called promotion of LGBTQ lifestyles or values. The measures come into effect on July 7th and forbids teachers from educating children about gay relationships or for normalized LGBTQ relationships to be shown on TV. Light instead of darkness, warriors instead of victims, smiles instead of tears, three women celebrate life and freedom through their courage, powerful energy, strength and neverending combativity.
Technical needs: min. 60m2 empty space + music
​Photos, credits
Day 3
  • Morning class: “Never give up Club” - Ongoing (between 10-13:00) / Open for everyone
What are people most afraid of? What are our common fears? Why fear arises and how can it be combatted? What are the causes and cures of fear and anxiety? What is panic? Why has the globalized world become paralyzed by fear? How have we arrived in an age of fear? How fear became an integral aspect of our political discourses, security apparatuses, social and cultural narratives? How fear contributes to the constructions of our personal identity and our relationship with others? What role does fear and threat play in contemporary societies?
Technical needs: min. 60m2 empty space + music (techno)
Photos
  • Evening performance: “Secret Garden” - 30 min / Open for everyone
Medicine by its proclaimed scientific objectivity is an easy and powerful tool for solidifying the rule and validity of white supremacy and patriarchal cisgenderism. Just as religion, medicine served, in its own way, to maintain the powers which shaped its creation and sustained the validity of its dominance. Through the exploration of the relationship between Christian religious hegemony and western medical authorities from a genderqueer feminist perspective, “Secret Garden” focuses on how womxns’ feelings on shame and guilt can be linked to religious and medical stigmatizations. Based on observations, discussions, readings of testimonies, feminist historical documentations and lesbian archives, the choreographic material of this solo emerges from an extensive research on the concepts of the unconscious, trauma, hysteria and paralysis both in terms of symptoms and expressions.
Technical needs: min. 60m2 empty space + music
Photos, trailer
​Timing
KÖLN:
Nov. 16: traveling (4 people)
Nov. 17: daily school + evening performance
Nov. 18: daily school + evening performance
Nov. 19: daily school + evening performance
Nov. 20: traveling back (4 people)

LONDON:
Dec. 6: traveling (4 people)
Dec. 7: daily school + evening performance
Dec. 8: daily school + evening performance
Dec. 9: daily school + evening performance
​Dec. 10: traveling back (4 people)
Flexible budget
“SMALL BUDGET” TOTAL (1 day of school + 1 evening performance): 600€
“MEDIUM BUDGET” TOTAL (2 days of school + 2 evening performances): 1100€
“LARGE BUDGET” TOTAL (3 days of school + 3 evening performances): 1500€
+ Travel (4 people)
​+ Accommodation (4 people)

proposition 2:
​Fight Club + Interactive installation in a BOX RING

A box ring is installed in the lobby of the art fair, where a maximum of people are passing by. The public can either join the daily “Fight Club” classes, or experiment with this interactive installation on their own.
DAILY organization
  • Daily school: “Fight Club” - Ongoing / Open for everyone
Through the practice of battle, fight, physical movement improvisation, this “Fight Club” encourages you to raise your voice, echo freely the broader socio-political context, challenge hegemonic class, gender, normative behaviors, and dominant ideologies, develop your capacities to resist, protest, revolt, fight against oppression: make a first action towards changes.
Technical needs: 1 box ring + music (techno)
Photos
  • Interactive installation - Ongoing / Open for everyone
The visitors have at their disposal printed box vests with names of homophobic and transphobic politicians (“Putin”, “Orbán”, “Erdogan”, “Bolsonaro”...). They can take on one, and engage in a battle of max 5 minutes in the ring.
Technical needs: 1 box ring + music (techno) + 1 person giving the instruction to the visitors and inviting them for a battle.
the ring
timing
KÖLN:
Nov. 16: traveling (1 pers)
Nov. 17: daily school + interactive installation
Nov. 18: daily school + interactive installation
Nov. 19: daily school + interactive installation
Nov. 20: daily school + interactive installation
Nov. 21: daily school + interactive installation
Nov. 22: traveling back (1 pers)

LONDON:
Dec. 3: traveling (1 pers)
Dec. 4: daily school + interactive installation
Dec. 5: daily school + interactive installation
Dec. 6: daily school + interactive installation
Dec. 7: daily school + interactive installation
Dec. 8: daily school + interactive installation
Dec. 9: daily school + interactive installation
Dec. 10: daily school + interactive installation
Dec. 11: daily school + interactive installation
Dec. 12: daily school + interactive installation
​Dec. 13: traveling back (1 pers)
Flexible budget
Personal expenses:
  • Fee (daily school): 75€ / 1h30 (max 6h / day)
  • Travel (1 person)
  • Accommodation (1 person)

Production costs:
  • Renting a box ring (600€ / day)
  • Printing 2-4 molinos (250€ / molino) for the 4 sides of the ring: “School of Disobedience”, “Resist, Unlearn, Revolt!”, “Disobedience is an act of courage”, “​​Small actions are big steps”
  • Custom Printed Box vests with names of homophobic and transphobic politicians “Putin”, “Orbán”, “Erdogan”, “Bolsonaro”... (30€ / vest): 120€

proposition 3:
​Fight Club + Interactive installation + Performances in a BOX RING

A box ring is installed in the lobby of the art fair, where a maximum of people are passing by. The public can either join the daily “Fight Club” classes, or experiment with this interactive installation on their own. Every afternoon there is a performance in the ring, each of them celebrating female combativity.
Participants
​Anna ADAM, Julia Eszter GAAL, Rebeka Petra KISS, Eva MORA
Day 1
  • Daily school: “Fight Club” - Ongoing / Open for everyone
Through the practice of battle, fight, physical movement improvisation, this “Fight Club” encourages you to raise your voice, echo freely the broader socio-political context, challenge hegemonic class, gender, normative behaviors, and dominant ideologies, develop your capacities to resist, protest, revolt, fight against oppression: make a first action towards changes.
Technical needs: 1 box ring + music (techno)
Photos
  • Interactive installation - Ongoing / Open for everyone
The visitors have at their disposal printed box vests with names of homophobic and transphobic politicians (“Putin”, “Orbán”, “Erdogan”, “Bolsonaro”...). They can take on one, and engage in a battle of max 5 minutes in the ring.
Technical needs: 1 box ring + music (techno) + 1 person giving the instruction to the visitors and inviting them for a battle
  • Evening performance: “CLASH” - 30 min / Open for everyone
This solo dance performance investigates the ideological, social, and political parameters of “good” and “bad”. It explores what designations such as “right/wrong”, “acceptable/unacceptable”, “conform/non- conform”, “pure/impure” mean, and who is empowered to make these distinctions. The piece focuses on how we confront, if we confront, social norms and expectations, our religious, cultural, and moral heritage, how we deal with rules and systems in which we are socialized and familiarized with. What does it mean and how does it feel to take the path of the “other”, the “not allowed”? What happens when we want to go against, to challenge, to change, to switch, but we don’t dare to? How do we negotiate and how do we deal with our rational side? What does our intellectual, spiritual, psychological, and emotional fight look like when desire takes over reason?
Technical needs: 1 box ring + music
​Photos
Day 2
  • Daily school: “Fight Club” - Ongoing / Open for everyone
Through the practice of battle, fight, physical movement improvisation, this “Fight Club” encourages you to raise your voice, echo freely the broader socio-political context, challenge hegemonic class, gender, normative behaviors, and dominant ideologies, develop your capacities to resist, protest, revolt, fight against oppression: make a first action towards changes.
Technical needs: 1 box ring + music (techno)
Photos
  • Interactive installation - Ongoing / Open for everyone
The visitors have at their disposal printed box vests with names of homophobic and transphobic politicians (“Putin”, “Orbán”, “Erdogan”, “Bolsonaro”...). They can take on one, and engage in a battle of max 5 minutes in the ring.
Technical needs: 1 box ring + music (techno) + 1 person giving the instruction to the visitors and inviting them for a battle
  • Evening performance: “Who is the boss?” - 30 min / Open for everyone
“Who is the boss?” is a vision of hope with a dark side, a dreamland with an apocalypse on the horizon. Frustration, fear and anxiety: this solo is an exhaustive fight against domination, oppression and exploitation of both women and nature.
Technical needs: 1 box ring + music
Photos
day 3
  • Daily school: “Fight Club” - Ongoing / Open for everyone
Through the practice of battle, fight, physical movement improvisation, this “Fight Club” encourages you to raise your voice, echo freely the broader socio-political context, challenge hegemonic class, gender, normative behaviors, and dominant ideologies, develop your capacities to resist, protest, revolt, fight against oppression: make a first action towards changes.
Technical needs: 1 box ring + music (techno)
Photos
  • Interactive installation - Ongoing / Open for everyone
The visitors have at their disposal printed box vests with names of homophobic and transphobic politicians (“Putin”, “Orbán”, “Erdogan”, “Bolsonaro”). They can take on one, and engage in a battle of max 5 minutes in the ring.
Technical needs: 1 box ring + music (techno) + 1 person giving the instruction to the visitors and inviting them for a battle​
  • Evening performance: “Secret Garden” - 30 min / Open for everyone
Medicine by its proclaimed scientific objectivity is an easy and powerful tool for solidifying the rule and validity of white supremacy and patriarchal cisgenderism. Just as religion, medicine served, in its own way, to maintain the powers which shaped its creation and sustained the validity of its dominance. Through the exploration of the relationship between Christian religious hegemony and western medical authorities from a genderqueer feminist perspective, “Secret Garden” focuses on how womxns’ feelings on shame and guilt can be linked to religious and medical stigmatizations. Based on observations, discussions, readings of testimonies, feminist historical documentations and lesbian archives, the choreographic material of this solo emerges from an extensive research on the concepts of the unconscious, trauma, hysteria and paralysis both in terms of symptoms and expressions.
Technical needs: 1 box ring + music
Photos, trailer
Day 4
  • Daily school: “Fight Club” - Ongoing / Open for everyone
Through the practice of battle, fight, physical movement improvisation, this “Fight Club” encourages you to raise your voice, echo freely the broader socio-political context, challenge hegemonic class, gender, normative behaviors, and dominant ideologies, develop your capacities to resist, protest, revolt, fight against oppression: make a first action towards changes.
Technical needs: 1 box ring + music (techno)
Photos
  • Interactive installation - Ongoing / Open for everyone
The visitors have at their disposal printed box vests with names of homophobic and transphobic politicians (“Putin”, “Orbán”, “Erdogan”, “Bolsonaro”). They can take on one, and engage in a battle of max 5 minutes in the ring.
Technical needs: 1 box ring + music (techno) + 1 person giving the instruction to the visitors and inviting them for a battle
  • Evening performance: “MÖBIUS” - 30 min / Open for everyone
No horizon, no perspective, no exit and no future: "Möbius" explores the sentiments of powerlessness of the Hungarian LGBT community, being manipulated and trapped by an enclosing system. Light instead of darkness, warrior instead of victim, smile instead of tears, the solo celebrates life and freedom through her courage, powerful energy, strength and neverending combativity.
Technical needs: 1 box ring + music
Photos
timing
KÖLN:
Nov. 16: traveling (4 people)
Nov. 17: daily school + interactive installation + evening performance
Nov. 18: daily school + interactive installation + evening performance
Nov. 19: daily school + interactive installation + evening performance
Nov. 20: daily school + interactive installation + evening performance
Nov. 21: traveling back (4 people)

LONDON:
Dec. 6: traveling (4 people)
Dec. 7: daily school + interactive installation + evening performance
Dec. 8: daily school + interactive installation + evening performance
Dec. 9: daily school + interactive installation + evening performance
Dec. 10: daily school + interactive installation + evening performance
Dec. 11: traveling back (4 people)
flexible budget
Personal expenses:
  • Fee (daily school): 75€ / 1h30 (max 6h / day)
  • Fee (performances): 150€ / performance
  • Travel (4 people)
  • Accommodation (4 people)

Production costs:
  • Renting a box ring (600€ / day)
  • Printing 2-4 molinos (250€ / molino) for the 4 sides of the ring: “School of Disobedience”, “Resist, Unlearn, Revolt!”, “Disobedience is an act of courage”, “​​Small actions are big steps”
  • Custom Printed Box vests with names of homophobic and transphobic politicians “Putin”, “Orbán”, “Erdogan”, “Bolsonaro”... (30€ / vest): 120€
the ring

artists

  • “School of Disobedience” is an experimental, anti-canonical and radical Performance Art School and Fight Club, only for women. Based on critical pedagogy, empowerment methods and guerilla tactics, the school helps participants achieve political consciousness through the regular practice of creating, fighting, protesting, resisting and revolting.
    web / instagram
  • Anna Adam is a Franco-Hungarian performance maker and visual artist. Her work blurs the boundaries between choreography, image and object, with the body and movement as central elements of expression. Education and community building are part of her main artistic medium: she creates non-judgmental and non-hierarchical political soft-spaces to defy norms, undermine tropes, and express criticism of structural and ideological concerns.
    web / instagram
  • “Gray Box” is a performance company between Budapest and Paris. Based on transdisciplinary research and collective experimentation, the company creates, curates and produces, in all horizontality, a body of work with a strong political, ecological and social dimension. Gray Box considers the moving body together with its immaterial aspects - such as perception, empathy, emotions, intuitions - as a political tool to fight for emancipation, social justice and independence.
    web / instagram