Playful, flirty, and delightfully weird, the talk show immerses audiences in the world of The Hildegard von Bingen Society for Gardening Companions, a queer-feminist collective originally founded by the German mediaeval mystic and musician Hildegard von Bingen in the 12th century. The talk show’s charismatic host Gardenia (Alice Morgan-Richards) interviews ‘members of the society’ (played by Steffi Walker, Milla Harding, Ishmael Kirby, Jacqui Bardelang, Naomi Woo): a cast of queer characters real and fictional, past and present, in a whirlwind jaunt through space and time.

Underneath the over-the-top 80s aesthetic and patent absurdity, the work is also a sharp commentary on how history is recorded, whose stories are allowed to be told, and how we know about the past. Drawing on speculative archives and techniques of autofiction, the artists ask: if there had been such a queer talk show, would it have been allowed to air, or would the archive have been lost to history? The artists point to the fact that queer communities of care have always existed, and have always been engaged in political and social struggle—their histories simply haven’t always been recorded.

This screening is followed by an informal Q&A with the artists in the cinema bar. 

 

Sophie Seita Instagram / Naomi Woo Instagram / The Hildegard von Bingen Society for Gardening Companions Instagram

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