Queertopia Closing Event: Manifesting the Future
Hosted by The Grey Space
Join us during the closing event! The event centers on the theme of collectively imagining and building queer futures, with a particular focus on perspectives related to safety, migration, community, and joy.
The queer community remains under threat even today. Whether it’s anti-trans legislation in the United States or attempts by the Hungarian government to cancel their Pride march. During the Queertopia Manifesto, we aim to explore these pressing issues and envision how we can collectively manifest a better, more inclusive future.
Among the invited speakers is Kai Mata, a queer artist and activist from Indonesia, one of the country’s few openly queer public figures. Their voice brings a powerful and much-needed perspective to the conversation, and the organizers are deeply honored to create space for their contribution.
Also featured is writer and performer Michael Love Michael, who recently relocated from the U.S. to The Netherlands. Together, these two voices offer a deeply personal and globally resonant exchange of queer experience.
The program includes a panel discussion with both international artists, followed by space for individual artistic contributions. The evening will close with the collective creation of a Queer Manifest, a poetic and radical vision for the future.
The evening will be moderated by our Director, Marijke Cobbenhagen.
Queertopia is a conversion machine: no matter what sexual orientation someone enters with, they emerge queer. Because in this imagined parallel reality created by the makers, sexual orientation is a choice.
This immersive experience magnifies the public discourse surrounding love and sexuality. In this alternate world, the LGBTQ+ lobby is thriving, and its “propaganda” has permeated every layer of society. The movement introduces a new method of conversion. As a participant, one has the chance to rediscover themselves by stepping into the conversion machine.
What happens when a world is imagined in which love and attraction are not defined, and love is no longer part of a political agenda? What remains is the realization that our diversity is our strength—that neither ourselves nor others need to be fully understood or categorized. In ambiguity, there is greater freedom.
In Queertopia, the artistic approaches of Luit Bakker and Bart van de Woestijne come together in a unified vision. Luit’s work seeks to humorously yet confrontationally disrupt traditional gender roles. She is socially critical and explores vulnerability—both her own and that of her audience.
Bart, through his Werkplaats van de Woestijne, transforms existential questions into thought-provoking experiences, challenging people to find their own answers to life’s complex issues. He deconstructs political topics down to their existential core, believing that genuine change begins with deeper self-reflection.
This is a free event and starts after the last Queertopia performance at 20.00.
Especially for Just Peace Festival, Luit Bakker and Werkplaats van de Woestijne, in collaboration with The Grey Space, present a museum-style version of Queertopia. Step into the conversion machine—and come out queer. Be transported into a parallel world where the LGBTQ+ lobby is at its peak, and where participants are invited to choose who they love and rediscover who they are.
This program is part of The Grey Space’s residency program House Guests in which we facilitate the interaction between a work, the space and the audience. Each House Guest has a week-long mini-residency, culminating in a public event.
This edition of House Guests is supported by the municipality of The Hague and Cultuurfonds, Haagse Bluf Fonds.
This program was also partly financed by Just Peace Festival.
