Franziska Goralski »And my mother says to me, enjoy your life«*

The Department Handlungspotential is a thought expe­ri­ment that loo­ks into fai­rer forms of future co-exis­tence and pos­si­ble and necessa­ry com­pon­ents of social­ly com­mit­ted action from a queer per­spec­ti­ve. How can estab­lis­hed ways of life be modi­fied or rethought? Which values and lines of action are rele­vant? Department Handlungspotential repre­sen­ta­ti­ve and artist Franziska Goralski invi­tes par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on in the search for pos­si­ble ans­wers and explo­ring new spaces.

A poten­ti­al for action (Handlungspotential) is the poten­ti­al that enab­les an action. Everything starts with an idea, but it takes an impul­se to start an action. Potential for action is the affec­ti­ve space that exists just befo­re an action begins.

At the moment, the Department Handlungspotential focu­ses on shaping and deve­lo­ping a lear­ning envi­ron­ment and prac­ti­ces that are based on nota­ti­ons of queer com­mo­ning. It faci­li­ta­tes (un-)learning opportunities.

Commoning is the collec­ti­ve and need-ori­en­ted main­ten­an­ce, pro­duc­tion, cul­ti­va­ti­on, and/or usa­ge of natu­ral resour­ces like air, water, or land, but also of cul­tu­ral resour­ces like know­ledge, time, or code. The Department Handlungspotential extends the dis­cour­se on com­mons to inclu­de queer per­spec­ti­ves. By loo­king into queer com­mo­ning, the Department seeks to rese­arch our socie­ty, our envi­ron­ment, and so-cal­led norms on a struc­tu­ral level.

The Department Handlungspotential’s tem­pora­ry field office at D21 Artspace Leipzig wel­co­mes all kinds of exchan­ge. Drop by and dive into figu­res of thought! You might encoun­ter an excep­ti­on from the sta­te of things – or even an excep­tio­nal state.

The Department Handlungspotential, foun­ded by Fransiska Goralski (FG) in 2016, crea­tes cross-media works and par­ti­ci­pa­to­ry set­tings through pro­cess-ori­en­ted and social­ly com­mit­ted artis­tic prac­ti­ces. FG’s trans­di­sci­pli­na­ry works are rese­arch-based and con­cept-dri­ven. They look into dif­fe­rent men­tal frame­works and ques­ti­on nor­ma­ti­ve cate­go­ries and power struc­tures. Franziska Goralski joins up with Anna Erdman to form die Blaue Distanz. Their artis­tic col­la­bo­ra­ti­on focu­ses on queer ways of living, (digi­tal) femi­nist per­spec­ti­ves, the pos­si­bi­li­ty of low-hier­ar­chy spaces and the visi­bi­li­ty of under­re­pre­sen­ted decisions.

FG cur­r­ent­ly lives and works in Dresden and Amsterdam. FG holds a degree in Fine Arts from the Dresden University of Fine Arts and gra­dua­ted from the tem­pora­ry pro­gram­me The Commoners’ Society at the Sandberg Institut in Amsterdam.

*Beverly Glenn-Copeland