VAE STAFF > REN MAUNEY, SUMMER 2024 A.I.R.
Ren Mauney (they/them) is a performance artist and activist who researches the correlation between the family and the state in the creation of a benign, obedient citizen. They are interested in the relationship between queer psychoanalysis and political performance to alternatively document evidence of carceral power and repression, both intimate and public.
Ren is currently the Artist in Residence at VAE Raleigh, where they will develop and present their next project ANTICONFESSIONAL: ABJECT, the first performance in a trilogy of works critiquing confessional politics from the family home to the judiciary state.
Ren is based in Berlin, but have spent the last 2 years in Portugal collaborating with art director and interdisciplinary maker Telmo Branco in the initiative "Art and Democracy", culminating in a nationally touring performance work examining nationalism, patriotism, and internalized oppression.
Additionally between 2021-2023, Ren received support from Dachverband Tanz Deutschland, Fonds Darstellende Der Kunste, Joint Adventures/NPN, and the Goethe Institut for a series of 3 internationally touring performance exhibitions (MATRILINEAL, BODY RIOT, GRACELESS) dealing with domestic violence, queer familial emancipation, and sexual citizenship.
Ren also holds an offer to study an MA Art and Politics at Goldsmiths University of London, which they will begin in October 2024.