Hofgarten Cruise: Community

Age recommendation: For viewers over 16 years Content Note: Discussion of sexual acts Hofgarten Cruise is a three-part series by performance artist Thomas Bartling on the topic of cruising. This queer cultural technique refers to the anonymous search for sexual encounters in public spaces. In times of social repression, secret meeting places emerged, beyond public perception. In Düsseldorf's Hofgarten, there has traditionally been such a cruising spot. Literature about cruising tells of encounters that move between visibility and anonymity, pleasure and loneliness, desire and self-assertion. In the texts of James Baldwin, John Rechy, Marcus Peter Tesch, and others, motifs can be found that are connected across different times and contexts: the desire to be seen, the need for nonconformity, queer identity, sex work, loneliness, pleasure, and desire. They describe cruising not only as a sexual practice but as a social space in which notions of body, identity, and belonging become concentrated. Community uses these literary perspectives as the starting point for a performative reading. Text, sound, and space combine to create an atmospheric collage of literary fragments, field recordings, and pop.