Sunday, 3 May 2026, 14:00–17:00 / Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons, Utrecht
13:30 Doors open
14:00–17:00 Workshop
17:00 Tea, coffee, snacks, and light dinner
Language: English (translation support may be available if needed)
Queer Cartographies is a series exploring and mapping queer migrant experiences, led by artist and researcher Ilya Genov. The series is co-hosted by De Voorkamer, Casco Art Institute, and BAK Basecamp.
The first workshop Patchwork Selves held at Casco invites participants to map different and sometimes conflicting parts of themselves, while critically reflecting on what authenticity and visibility can mean in queer life. Rather than thinking about queer identity in fixed or binary terms—such as “fake” or authentic, closeted or “out”—the workshop encourages a more relational approach that makes space for contradiction, fluidity, and uncertainty. Participants are invited to map aspects of themselves that may be difficult to fit into a single, coherent narrative, and to reflect on how being queer can also mean being multiple, or not fully known—by oneself or by others.
Building on Ilya’s research on queer in/visibility in Almaty, Kazakhstan, the workshop draws on Édouard Glissant’s notion of opacity and applies it to questions of the pressure for transparency within dominant Western understandings of queer identity. By approaching queer migrant experiences as shaped by fracture, duality, and ongoing self-transformation, attention is given to parts of the self that have been left behind, discovered in new places, and that remain present wherever movement occurs. In this way, reflections concern not only geographical journeys, but also internal ones that continue to unfold across time and space.
Please complete this form by 27 April at 12:00 in the afternoon if you would like to join. The workshop has a limited number of spots, so registration is required.
