When we look at what we call reality, we see a system of rules consisting of social expectations, hierarchies and categories of identity such as gender, class, and race that determine our interactions. These social dynamics are like the rules of a board game and we have fantasies to escape, explore and change that reality. By enacting them in the real world, we learn to inhabit those dreams with our physical bodies. We become other people to learn about ourselves. And if these fantasies get together in the real world, we hack reality. Let’s define a safer space in which all of these rules are negotiable; where what seems impossible is given tangible form and risks can be safely explored. Let’s make it a party. We’ll call it GEGEN Fantasy. Let’s take our fantasies out of the closet and explore a world where all our dreams overlap together. Let’s form this Magic Circle with throbbing music and flashing lights. We’ll have fantastic performances, platters of fresh fruit and maybe even a dungeon and a pool. Some of the things that emerge will be planned and some of them will not, but all of them will alter the color of your mind. Actually, why make it a party at all? Why not something completely different? Let’s make it a dystopian future ruled by wasteland-dwelling tomboys. Let’s cross-reference Orange is the New Black with Tom of Finland. Let’s build a time machine disguised as a BDSM escape room. Let’s set it in Atlantis or Wakanda, where maybe you’re a lone wolf looking for a pack, a transsexual pirate out for enthusiastically consensual booty, or an incredibly shy unicorn dancing all night in front of the subs. All of these worlds are open for us to explore with our bodies. Everything we want is available to create a perfect virtual illusion, a Gesamtkunstwerk or a shamanistic ritual. Enter GEGEN Fantasy: make new rules, become somebody else for a time and see what happens while you’re inside. When you come out you’ll be yourself again, but you will have changed. Because fantasies, when experienced in our bodies, are also real. GEGEN Fantasy
