Suse Itzel
Suse Itzel (1984*) is a visual artist, author, and filmmaker. She studied fine arts at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. In April 2024, she completed her postgraduate studies at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. Her expansive installations and video works have been shown in numerous exhibitions since 2012. She has received working scholarships in Hamburg, Münster, Ahrenshoop, Graz, Vienna and Salzburg. In her more recent autobiographical works, she deals with the consequences of sexualized violence as well as physical and mental illness. In Cologne, she is co-founder of the queer-feminist reading series [OHNE PRONOMEN] („[WITHOUT PRONOUNS]“). In her short film “I would have liked to make a different film” (2024) she recounts the sexual abuse she endured as a child and teenager in her family. “I would have liked to make a different film” won awards at the blicke - filmfestival des ruhrgebiets, the LICHTER Filmfest Frankfurt International, and the Short Film Festival Hamburg.
Residency 15.12.25 - 06.01.2026
Wednesday, December 17, at 6:30 p.m.
Screening: "I would have liked to make a different film" by Suse Itzel
Based on her own work and her own history of illness and therapy, Suse Itzel will focus on anti-psychiatry and criticism of psychiatry during her residency at Arbeitszimmer thealit.
From the experiments of American psychiatrist David Rosenhan in the 1970s, in which he exposed the conditions in psychiatric clinics at that time as harmful to health, to Frantz Fanon as a pioneer of anti-colonial anti-psychiatry, to the „Sozialistische Patientenkollektiv (SPK)“ in Germany, which became known for its pamphlet “Aus der Krankheit eine Waffe machen” („Turning Illness into a Weapon“), to more recent publications such as „Psychiatrie überwinden“ („Overcoming psychiatry“) or “Gegendiagnose”(“Counterdiagnosis”) – what does it mean today to queer (anti)psychiatry and psychotherapy? Can we use this to conceive of new networks of kinship and queer care? Where can we find comfort and help when institutions fail orwhen their therapies are too much of a tool for standardization?
Wednesday, December 17, at 6:30 p.m.
Screening: "I would have liked to make a different film" by Suse Itzel
Suse Itzel invites you to a screening of her autobiographical short film from 2024 that deals with the consequences of sexualized violence. The film will be shown in German with English subtitles, at Arbeitszimmer thealit, St.-Jürgen-Str. 157/159, Bremen. After the film, there will be an opportunity for discussion.
Suse Itzel describes the film like this: „In the film's voice-over, the filmmaker recounts the sexual abuse she endured as a child and teenager in her family. An experimental video image reinforces the spoken word. Photographs from the past: pictures from a living room that no longer exists. The family appears as a gap. A green couch in the older photos and a green couch as a reconstructed sculpture. Images as projections in different places: painful memories that reappear in the present. In psychiatric rooms, studio spaces or shared flats. Blank spaces refer to blank spaces. Through reconstructed memories, viewers follow the filmmaker through her life and through inpatient trauma therapy.”
During her residency at the Arbeitszimmer thealit, Suse Itzel will explore anti-psychiatry. Where can we find comfort and help when institutions fail us or their therapies are too much of a standardisation tool? What does it mean today to queer (anti)psychiatry and psychotherapy? To what extent can the therapy described in the film also be viewed critically?
Itzel's work “Fake It Till You Make It, Fake It Till You Die” is based on the psychoeducation therapy sheets from Itzel's own inpatient trauma therapy. However, her artistic exploration also considers the social expectations that are directly or indirectly communicated to those affected in a capitalist and heteronormative system. With her newly acquired knowledge, Itzel wants to reexamine and develop her own artistic work through a queer-feminist, anti-psychiatric lens.
Foto: Dörthe Boxberg