Day of special programming for International Day of Action for Trans* Depathologisation

img 2362-1-The equality division of the Formentera Council’s social welfare department has joined with another arm of the administration, the department of culture, in organizing a series of activities to take place next week and the second week in November to mark October 21 as International Day of Action for the Depathologisation of Trans* Identities (the asterisk denotes the inclusion of a diverse range of gender identities, ie. trans, transsexual, transgender).

Programming

At 8.00pm on Tuesday October 23, Mar C Llop will unveil a photo exhibit entitled Construccions Identitàries. The artist says “the project captures the bodily processes already , familiar to transgender people, it shows the human face, trans people and their families, and it captures the secrecy that so frequently accompanies crossdressing’. Mar C Llop will be present for the evening event.

At 8.00pm on Thursday October 25, the cinema (Sala de Cultura) will host a screening of En Femme, a documentary by filmmaker Alba Barbé that deals with transvestism, the practice of dressing in clothes normally associated with the opposite gender to the one a person was assigned at birth. Formentera is the first island in the Balearics to host a screening.

Associated workshops have been scheduled for Thursday October 25 and Friday October 26 at Marc Ferrer secondary school. Més enllà del bullying deals with sexual and gender diversity as well as ending myriad forms of discrimination. The workshops are designed to lend a global counterpoint to a week of LGTBI visibility and trans depathologisation.

Social welfare secretary Vanessa Parellada says “our goal was to reach out to the schoolchildren of Formentera about issues of sexual and gender diversity, and educate people in not discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, identity or gender expression’. The secretary also pointed to group La lio Parda’s November run of theatre workshops to address the same issues with year three pupils at IES Marc Ferrer and year five and six pupils in primary.

Last up is Balearic company Baal’s production of the Catalina Carrasco-directed Crotch, a show that is by turns fragile, provocative, aggressive, funny and responsible as it offers a panoramic view of gender from (in)equality to sexual identity.

The central goal is to bring light and visibility to bodies, tolerance and sexuality, suggesting gender’s disappearance as the solution to gender inequality. This innovative experiment is artistically, socially and politically engaged.

Recommended for viewers 18 and up, Crotch comes to Formentera’s Sala de Cultura (cinema) 8.30pm on Saturday November 10.