2007

JULY
First "takeover" of FLACSO
by the group, "Project Drag"
An 8’ film presented for the first time in the cafeteria during the different masters’ classes scheduled break time accompanied the takeover of the university. We were looking to share our project with not only a significant audience, but also a diverse range of students. Daniel Moreno's performance as "La Paca" put the finishing touches on this first intervention.

AUGUST
Installation: Re-thinking the Binary
Performance - FLACSO/Dionisios
Do you like the gender that you are obligated to have? In front of a mirror have you ever thought about the possibility of being another gender? With these questions, the group prepared a performance together with the Dionisios Art/Culture/Identity Theater in order to provide an open space for reflection, interrogating the models that society has pushed on us. We hoped to take the audience on a playful adventure of re-understanding and experimentation. All of our expectations were exceeded, as we were able to share our performance with academics, activists, photographers, cinematographers, the LGBTQA community, friends, family, and more.

OCTOBER
Forum and Discussion "Project Drag",
FLACSO/Ecuador
This first forum was a transnational project, organized under the in-site guidance of Carolina Páez, and with the help of those who created "Project Drag". Academics, artists, activists, and the general public who were interested in hearing the discussions surrounding art, the body, performance, gender, and sexuality attended the forum. The panelists included Elizabeth Vásquez (Founder of Proyecto Trvnsgénero), Xavier Andrade (Coordinator of the Visual Anthropology Department at FLACSO/Ecuador), and Tatiana Cordero (from a Women’s-based organization). This initial forum was made possible, as well, by the support of the following groups: Fundación Causana, the Organización de Mujeres Lesbianas del Ecuador OML and the Consejo Nacional de Mujeres (CONAMU)

2008

JUNE
Photography/Multimedia Installation: "Re-thinking the Binary" put on by "Project Drag" during the International Conference called "Bodies and Borders" that was celebrating the ten-year anniversary for the Gender and Culture Studies Program at FLACSO/Ecuador. Christian Velasteguí, active collaborator, as well as the Art Department at the Central University supported this installation.

DECEMBER
Desbordes Forum: Re-thinking the binaries of man/woman; masculine/feminine
Gender and Culture Studies Program, FLACSO/Ecuador

2009

JULY
Opening and Closure of the Desbordes Installation: Re-thinking our bodies,
Dionisios Art/Culture/Identity Theater
Desbordes de géner@ looked to interrupt traditional social spaces in order to challenge the normative ideas of man=masculine and woman=feminine. We took the theory to a practical place by being politically active and using what we call "action-art." This exercise looked to deliberately occupy the space of another body aesthetic challenging the meanings associated with biological organs. This created an "in-between" zone that challenged the rigid categories that society assigns to a person as being either a man or a woman; such dualism traps and limits us on a regular basis.

FLACSO/Ecuador:  Ana Maria Goetschel, Gender and Cultural Studies Program Dean; Adrian Bonilla, President; Andrea Pequeño, Asociate Professor; Gioconda Herrera, Sociology Program Dean

LGBTIQA Pride Parade
For the first time, the Collective Desbordes de Géner@ participated in this event distributing information to the general public on the importance of thinking about gender and sexuality ‘outside the box’, promoting respect and awareness towards diverse communities.

SEPTIEMBRE
Preview, Video Short
"Bodies/Borders: The Journey" (23')
Movie Showcase "Bodies/Borders: The Journey" screened at the International Migrants Summit, FLACSO/Ecuador.

OCTOBER
Preview, Video Short
"Bodies/Borders: The Journey"
Anthropology Department, American University, Washington, D.C.
After the screening, the forum discussion took place on Saturday the 10th at 4:00 pm where filmmakers from around the United States shared their experiences with academics, activists, and other people who joined the conversation.

Trans Month, Quito
Desbordes de Géner@ participated in a campaign called "October Trans Ecuador" in which the organization Proyecto Trvnsgénero called for the rights of intersex people to not be subjected to unsolicited bodily interventions looking for pathologic symptoms. Proyecto Trvnsgénero also urgently works to have the Ecuadorean state guarantee the right of transgender persons to a healthy body, in whatever appearance they choose for their bodies to take on, as well as the right to gender identity that more clearly clarifies different identities and allows for cultural expressions.

DECEMBER
The Desbordes de Géner@ group was invited to participate in a radio program called "We are Sexual," sponsored by the foundation "Fundación Causana," and led by Patricio Aguirre. Janina, Fernando, Samuel and Yadira presented the group’s ideas and experiences.

2010

FEBRUARY
Cadavre Exquis Video
The Desbordes de Géner@ group participated in the creation of a video project called "Exquisite Corpse Video" organized as part of the Rooms of Projects section of the Present Art program at FLACSO in Quito. 62 videos from six countries came together to form this body of moving images. The end project was a ground-breaking collaboration of Ecuadorian artists whose work was shown in Ecuador, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Chile.

Anniversary of the Dionisios
Art/Culture/Identity Theater
Desbordes de Géner@ participated in a sketch that was part of the events celebrating the twelfth anniversary of the Dionisios Art/Culture/Identity Theater's work of providing cultural and artistic activities that deal with themes having to do with gender and sexuality.

MARCH
CUNY
The documentary "Bodies/Borders: The Journey" was shown by the City University of New York (CUNY) and their departments of Women's Studies, Social Sciences, Anthropology, and Afro-American Studies as part of their exhibit and forum supporting Latino LGBTQA (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Allies) activists and feminists from New York and Washington. 60 people attended the event.

Long Island
"Bodies/Borders: The Journey" was invited to be shown at the Long Island Community Center in New York. A question-and-answer forum open to the entire community followed the showing. The event was made possible thanks to the participation of local NY academics, as well as LGBTQA activists. Bridges were built allowing for an open discussion between the academics and the activists, and looking at issues of gender, feminism, queer studies, and LGBT rights.

APRIL
Book Publication, Los años viejos y las viudas ¿negociaciones del orden sexual?
[Widows and the Año Viejo (New Year’s Eve celebration), Negotiations around Gender and Sexuality]
by Gloria María Minango Narváez, member of the Desbordes de Géner@ collective.
This study seeks to highlight the importance of inserting cultural traditions –such as those taking place on New Year’s Eve in Ecuador-- within a complex frame of analysis that looks closely at gender and sexuality: what is the role of the "widows" (traditional men who dress as women) as they negotiate a sexual and gender normative order within particular understandings around culture and tradition? read more

Launching, Website
Desbordes de Gener@ Collective
The launching was part of International Women's Day celebration and awareness events, organized by FLACSO's Gender and Cultural Studies Program. It included the performance of Daniel Moreno, who transformed himself to the diva Sarahi as the audience watched, amazed. Other members from the Collective embodied waiter/waitresses turning the audience into living advertisements for Desbordes by sticking key political phrases on their backs without them knowing. The closing of this multimedia transnational event featured its founder, María Amelia greeting the audience from Washington D.C. through Skype. Read a press release here

Desbordes de Gener@ at
The New School for Social Research
Maria Amelia Viteri was invited to present the Collective at the Conference "Politically Queer: Social In(queer)y and the University"

Cuerpos/Fronteras:  La Ruta
was on the Jornadas Transfeministas de Barcelona, This activity was coordinated by members Leticia Rojas & Vicky Aguirre

MAY
Cuerpos/Fronteras: La Ruta
was invited by the Department of Women Studies at University of Maryland. After the screening, Maria Amelia Viteri participated in a Q&A while discussing the experiences of the Collective.

FIGHT Against Gender-based-discrimination!
Desbordes de Géner@ Collective participated in an awareness campaign against homo/lesbo/bi/trans/inter/ phobia organized by Dionisios Art/Culture/Identity
and the Loto Blanco Collective.

Ch@gr@ and HuAng performed on stage to visbilize public aggressions and the pathological view the medical and psychiatric profession still share about gender matters.

Photo Exhibit: Más de Una Vez Al Año No Hace Daño
Previously opened in the Camilo Egas Museum for the 2008 Gay Pride celebrations in Quito, these photographs by Desbordes de Géner@ member HuAng (Juan Zabala) was shown again in Dionisios Arte/Cultura/Identidad.

These images document the tradition of the "Viudas de Año Viejo" in southern Quito during 2005-2007. After a thorough postproduction process, the author attempts to question the gender negoctiations that result of this tradition, reinterpreting femenine self representations froma a queer and kitsch view.