Friday, September 29, 10am, Galerie Rabus

Claudia Reiche
Do not exist: Politics of sexuation

When asked what “race”, in particular “black” is, Jean Genet said, “And above all, what colour is it?” When asked what “woman” is, why not say, “What sex is it?” Thus performing Jacques Lacan’s concept of sexuation, which describes sexual difference not as a set of symbolic oppositions, but as a trauma. The Lacanian formulas of sexuation propose two ways for the subject to position itself towards sexual difference, known as “male” and “female”. Sexuation is antagonistic to the identity-based concepts we know from feminism and gender studies. Neither anatomical attributes, nor attributed or claimed gender describe sexuation. “Sexual difference is [...] that first cleavage, which indeed does not emerge as such but, as original negativity, determines the positivity of the genders.” This statement by Marie Luise Angerer formulates un-thought-of possibilities in sexual politics. Can (non)existence be the basis for articulating political positions? Confirming the Lacanian description of woman by overthrowing it? For the female choice would be one of thinking/acting, at the cost of existence…


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