COVEN Berlin addresses many prejudices that are still all too common in our society. For example, when turning to sex and all the ways women’s sexuality is bound to “the female”. How do you try to break down and communicate those questions to the public? 

Louise Trueheart: As a collective that practices intersectional queer feminisms, we are certainly interested in sex and sexuality, and less interested in “the female” and in “women’s sexuality” insofar that those words are limited in who and what they can address. So, the first thing to break down, I think, is the binary inherent in the question. I also question who the “public” is, because our audience is mostly comprised of folx around and within specific pockets of Berlin’s multi-faceted queer scene, and many of them have incredibly skilled and insightful approaches to breaking down prejudice. So, we want to be in dialogue with these questions without claiming any superiority over a public. We are constantly informed by the people around us, be they friends or lovers, administrators or artists. A more mainstream audience is welcome of course, but we aren’t necessarily catering to them.

Opposing discrimination is on all of us, what do you think we could be doing more to change the current panorama, especially in the cultural and art world?

Fighting injustice can often be framed in such a way that the individual or the identitarian is at the center, which always sets us up for failure. Living a life that you honestly, politically, and ethically can stand behind is an incredibly difficult task. There is always more to be done, and each person must decide for themselves what they could do more or less of. You could be a vegan but never read the news. You could be in polyamorous relationships but not know how to be there for your platonic friends. You could be a radical activist but take the plane twice a month. You could be blind to your privileges or overwhelmed by white guilt. Maybe thinking more collectively and systematically can help, whether it’s on the level of consumer choices, the circulation of knowledge, access to opportunities and visibility, and beyond. Art can help with this. I also think art and culture come in to upset us and push us in different directions, so in that sense I would recommend witnessing art you don’t relate to (which sometimes is disguised as art you don’t like), as well as art made by people whose primary job isn’t “artist” – many of COVEN’s best collaborations have been with babysitters, activists, sex workers, students, etc. It’s important to remember that you don’t need an M.A. or be a 'part of the scene' to make good art.

What can we expect from COVEN at Project Space Festival Berlin 2019?

We are doing a few things differently for PSF – the format will be more performative and participatory, COVEN members Frances Breden, Lorena Juan, Kiona Hagen Niehaus and Louise Trueheart will make 60% of the art in the show (the other 40% will be made by our friends Romily Alice Walden and Clay A.D. of the Sickness Affinity Group), and it won’t be in a gallery. Taking place at ProFamilia, an actual family planning clinic in Schöneberg, PROBAND-WERDEN parodies medical trials in an effort to share experiences that move our understanding of our bodies away from medical norms and neutralities. Look for critiques of dystopian healthcare futures, floating as survival strategy, and a centering of the sick body.