After the Anal Age and the Phallic Age, humanity is about to enter the Clitorian Age.
The penetrative movements of enlightenment, cultural hegemony, concurrence society, colonialism and capitalism are at the verge of being replaced by other models of coexistence based on sensitivity, consent, diversity and equality. In the Clitorian Age, clitoris is not connected to any binary genital form, but defined as the sensual center of any body. The clitoris is the only organ in the human body that has continuously evolved over five million years with the singular purpose of developing greater feeling. It serves no other bodily function than to feel.
Thinking in a clitorian way brings forward queer imaginations about all existing cultural forms. References to the role of the clitoris in creative endeavors can be found as early as the 16th century in writings by forerunners of the Clitorian Age. However, these accounts were not well received at the time and therefore largely got lost or forgotten. With The Clitorian Reading Room, Ari Merten and Thea Reifler dedicate an installation to one of the documented clitorian creative practices from the 19th century: The clitorian reading and writing of early clitorian poet Annette von Droste-Hülshoff. In the installation in Droste’s residency Haus Rüschhaus, both Droste’s youth room and Droste’s clitorian practice are speculatively re-constructed for you to visit.
Englisch Easy Language:
The clitoris is a part of your body.
It is a mesh of nerves between your legs.
It tickles if you touch it.
The clitoris is there only to feel.
The installation The Clitorian Reading Room shows:
- Poet Annette von Droste-Hülshoffs youth room.
- How Annette von Droste-Hülshoff was reading and writing.
- How Annette von Droste-Hülshoff was working with this tickling feeling of the clitoris.
Note
Book your Zum Hexenhaus day ticket.
Book the Festival-Pass via e-mail ticketing@burg-huelshoff.de.
The Clitorian Reading Room was part of the Droste Festival 2019 and was funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Droste-Forum e.V.