EVENT DESCRIPTION
Sync the Queer Thought is a program bringing together a performance, a video screening, and a discussion by Brandon Gercara .
The performance transforms lip-syncing into a space for embodying queer thought, where speeches become gesture, voice, and presence.
The film Destin Vogoya follows Umbra’s return to La Réunion and the emergence of “Vogoya,” a fusion of voguing and maloya, as an act of resistance against social norms and homophobic violence.
The session concludes with a discussion with the audience.
Performance Title: Sync the Queer Thought
Duration: 10 minutes
In Sync the Queer Thought, Brandon Gercara transposes a practice drawn from the drag scene—lip-sync—into a critical and poetic tool through which body and thought enter into dialogue. They perform excerpts from speeches by queer scholars such as Holok Chen and Alok Vaid-Menon, miming their words in a performance that articulates voice, body, and identity.
Originally from Réunion Island, non-binary and an activist, Gercara has explored, since 2016, the dynamics of domination and the intersections of gender, race, and coloniality. Sync the Queer Thought is not a simple reading but an embodiment of ideas: voice, gesture, facial expression, hairstyle, and intonation are absorbed in order to become one with the reactivated theories.
Through this transformative gesture, the artist amplifies discourses often marginalized within institutional spheres, creating a shared community of thought and an embodied space of reflection. The performance becomes a site of reappropriation and transmission, where the language of critical theory is brought to life through play and performance, resonating with contemporary queer concerns.
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Screening: Destin Vogoya
Duration: 15 mins
Destin Vogoya tells the story of Umbra’s return to Réunion Island after a period spent in mainland France. Torn between a deep attachment to their island, the weight of family traditions, and experiences of homophobic violence, they face an environment where their kwir identity unsettles others and is constantly put to the test.
Guided by Bloom’s voice and the strength of maloya, Umbra undergoes an intimate and political journey in which pain transforms into creative power. By merging voguing and maloya, they invent “Vogoya,” an artistic act of resistance and self-affirmation.
Blending realism with a fantastical dimension, the film celebrates kwir Creole identities and envisions a space where they can exist fully—free and radiant.
