Trance/Gender/Multiple Me Lectures & Discussions

Lecture-performance by Ingrid Hoelzl, transdisciplinary artist and theorist, Hamburg / followed by audience discussion with the artist and Watutsi Joje, initiator, Egbé Oria ketu, Alagbè and Babálawò.

What does it mean when Oshun, the Orisha of Femininity and Freshwater, manifests in a cisgender man, or Oshóssi, the Orisha of the Hunt, manifests in a cisgender woman? Is Logunedé genderfluid because he dresses partly like his father Oshóssi and partly like his mother Oshun? Does trance have anything to do with transgender identity? Can I identify with Iroko, the Orisha of Ancestrality?

In collaboration with the fluctoplasma festival 2025 "visions beyond the west," the Latin American Institute, and the Center for Gender & Diversity at the University of Hamburg , Trance/Gender/Multiple Me addresses the relationship between trance and gender as a transcultural dialogue. Ingrid Hoelzl's solo performance is based on her performative research on the ritual practice of Candomblé in Salvador da Bahia, northeastern Brazil, in which the theorist and artist spoke with initiates and performed in/with the tree god Iroko. This gave rise to the film Transcorporation : States Beyond the Self (2025) and the idea for the performance.

This is followed by a discussion with Watutsi Joje (initiate, Egbé Oria ketu, Alagbè, and Babálawò), in which firsthand knowledge is intertwined with Western ideas. Trance/Gender/Multiple Me requires no prior theoretical or cultural knowledge; gender fluidity and personal boundary dissolution in ritual trance are made accessible in a low-threshold, multimedia-based way and placed in relation to performance and the question of ancestrality.