Building Crip Communities

Nina Mühlemann and Edwin Ramirez


Sunday, 5th of September

7.00 pm - 8.30 pm

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Public Conversation in English spoken language with English subtitles and German spoken language and German sign language interpretation

To close the conference, curators Kate Marsh and Noa Winter will be in conversation with Nina Mühlemann and Edwin Ramirez, who collectively developed the performance series Criptonite based on a peer-to-peer approach. The four will talk about what being in community with other disabled artists means to them and what it needs to build communities that are not only vaguely accessible, but instead celebrate crip ways of being in the world and making art.

The photo shows Nina Mühlemann and Edwin Ramirez on stage during a Criptonite performance. On the right, Nina, a white woman in her wheelchair, her face sporting an affixed moustache twisted by her lyp sinc performance. On the left, Edwin, a light skinned Black person in their wheelchair, also lyp sincing. In the backgrond of the stage, the sentence „I don’t care you’re here tonight“ is projected onto a black screen in white letters, resembling a karaoke event.

Nina Mühlemann is an artist and disability scholar based in Zurich. In 2017 she completed her PhD at King’s College London in Disability Studies and Performance Studies. From 2018-2019 she was co-director of the Future Clinic for Critical Care, a socio-culturally animated theatre practice project, with performances at Gessnerallee Zurich and Impulstanz Wien. Since 2020 she is co-director of Criptonite, a queer-crip theatre project at Gessnerallee Zurich, which is also part of the Freischwimmen network. She has curated and taught many different events, workshops and symposia on themes around disability and performance.

Edwin Ramirez is a performance artist and stand-up comic based in Zurich. They were part of the Future Clinic for Critical Care, a socio-culturally animated theatre practice project, with performances at Gessnerallee Zurich. In October 2020 he was part of the cast in the piece Star Magnolia at Theater Neumarkt in Zurich, an Afro-Futuristic Novella heavily inspired by the Parable book series by Octavia Butler. Since 2020 they are a co-director of Criptonite, a queer-crip theatre project at Gessnerallee Zurich, which is also part of the Freischwimmen network.