Mara Ittel's "Gagarmani, surfing on the lesbian eyeliner" was presented before live audience at Centrale Fies, Dro, Italy on July 28th, 2023 as one of 19 AEROPONIC ACTS of  WHERE THE MOON IS UP curated by Elisa Giuliani.

Here you will find the documentation of Mara Ittel's presentation as filmed by Baha Görkem Yalım. The written report is by Giulia Crispiani and it includes a summary of the comments by esteemed guest respondents.

Gagarmani, surfing on the lesbian eyeliner

Mara Ittel's question: How does make up make us?

Mara's introduction: It’s Gagarmani again, the Drag King living in a universe of fandom planets. This time he is off to an adventure into the hidden secrets of lesbian femme fashion. On his quest, he meets a special guest—a famous queer icon! They will take him into the magic chamber of their closet and tell him all about that, not leaving out any details nor eyeliners. And what is it about that eyeliner? When is it failed, and when is it razor-sharp? What does that say about the wearer, and what does the wearer want to say with it? Wait out and find out. 

Giulia's report: Audience on stage, voice over offstage—“I am a drag king, he pronoun, each time I perform for you I am off to a different planet, today we’re off to the lesbian planet. It started off at …I just sat there and watched the lesbians go”—then describes some outfits in details, and make ups and styles. The drag king himself is wearing a shiny golden suit, and silver platform boots and Armani t-shirt and walks around nodding and acting over the voice offstage, dances and surfs on some tunes. Then another character comes in—“hey who’s standing over that eyeliner?” Looking like a giant green M&Ms, the drag king asks them—“what are the looks of femmes?” Music goes on and they start dancing, “how can I wear a dress and high heels in a butch way? How can be a king in a dyke way?” M&Ms says he’s going too far—“Can I come into your closet to get to know your style?” They come back with M&Ms favorite outfit. “I am interested in the green m&m no one has ever seen.” “I am huge fan of eyeliner” she says—and begins to show some styles. “Eyeliner as a statement. Femme fashion is about exaggerating everything—humor can also be found in the eyeliner. From Nina Simone to Cher to the mainstream and back to the queer space”—M&Ms is telling the story of the eyeliner. They end up “waltzing the night away into another dimension.”

Phanuel Antwi It’s so funny to suspend thinking and actually and finally be in my body, thinking feeling and flirting, and enjoying all this happening on them between you two. Your work got me thinking of cosmetics as a living archive, you unearthed that for us. Not to be cheesy, thinking about the eye as the window—Janelle Monáe as a queer icon, thanks for stirring up things I didn’t think of.

Ayesha Hameed This is speculative fiction, this one point where you’re surfing the eyeliner, it’s libidinal, it’s pure joy with surf music. I think of Grandville, modernity and its relationship to fashion on a cosmic scale. A fantastical magical cosmos down to earth. As Benjamin was saying fashion is constantly changing, brings euphoria to a moment. There are two different  linguistic modes, through the body and the offstage voice, where fictioning displaces from reality but has traction and amplifies it.

Francesco Urbano Ragazzi I want to focus on one detail of the piece, that synthesizes everything: you pose a series of questions, and these series of questions are related to identity and how do we cross identity boundaries—the eagle can be even fascist, but then the glitter and Armani and then glitter again, this is the eagle we need.  

Your character never reaches the right question. I asked myself all the time how is it possibile that a drag king and a mass product are recognizing each other and belonging to the same realm? How counterculture and mainstream are nurturing each other, in the impossibility of answering these questions lays the engine for progression. I wonder whether this work could be translated into a video or a commercial or something? You can also speed up the rhythm as you wish and reach the effect you wanted to have on stage.

About: Mara Ittel

Mara Ittel's "Gagarmani, surfing on the lesbian eyeliner" was presented before live audience at Centrale Fies, Dro, Italy on July 28th.

Find the overview of all nineteen AEROPONIC ACTS 2023 here: WHERE THE MOON IS UP

In italiano: 

TITOLO: Gagarmani, fa surf sull'eyeliner lesbico

DOMANDA: Come ci rende il trucco?

È di nuovo Gagarmani, il Drag King che vive in un universo di pianeti fandom. Questa volta parte per un'avventura nei segreti nascosti della moda femminile lesbica. Durante la sua ricerca, incontra un ospite speciale: una famosa icona queer! Lo porteranno nella camera magica del loro armadio e gli racconteranno tutto, senza tralasciare alcun dettaglio né gli eyeliner. E cosa c'è in quell'eyeliner? Quando è fallato e quando è affilato come un rasoio? Cosa dice di chi lo indossa e cosa vuole dire? Aspettate a scoprirlo.