Daniela Minneboo: How did you come to teach performance art as a form of activism? 

Cesy Leonard: Katharina [Haverich] and I both worked at the Zentrum für Politische Schönheit or Centre for Political Beauty [which this text will refer to as the ZPS]. We have always been interested in what art can achieve within people and how it can touch us in a very special way and with such an intensity that it gets us mobilised. While working with the ZPS, I noticed the power performance art has to ignite this spark. In this context, I would say that the power of art lies in the fact that it makes me feel democracy. By this I mean an emotional understanding of democracy, the state, or the political dimension, not a cognitive one. 

At the same time, the actions of the ZPS were often discussed in certain milieus by people who are already interested in art and politics, who read the newspaper, are on Twitter, or go to the theatre. With Radical Daughters, our aim is to reach those who are more distanced from politics. 

Daniela: How do you establish contact with the schools? Are there any guidelines or restrictions as far as political content is concerned? 

Cesy: We actively approached vocational schools in particular, even if it was not always easy because there were no precedents for projects like Radical Daughters. By now, though, many of these schools know us and approach us themselves. We have never had an experience involving the schools who are booking us specifying what was allowed or not allowed in advance. 

Our own policy is that teachers are not allowed to be in the room during a workshop because they could influence what the students say. You have to create a so-called “brave space” so that the students can be brave.

Daniela: How do the “workshops” take place, in terms of specifics? How do you choose your topics?

Cesy: It is a joint, laboratory-type learning process between equals. We bring the “action art methods” we have developed – a kind of toolbox for getting into political action through artistic methods. But the subject matter always comes from the participants. They tell us what objectives they would wish to become active for. We often start workshops with “political speed dating”, which involves questions like: “What occasions do you celebrate in your family?” or “Where did you go on your last holiday?” This is how we start conversations, get to know each other, and initiate discussions about where the political begins. 

Daniela: You specifically chose vocational schools in rural areas. How do the topics of discussion differ from urban areas? 

Cesy: Lack of infrastructure is a major problem in Germany, especially in rural areas. As a young person in training, I am dependent on a car because public transport is not sufficiently developed. This is an example of a topic that comes up again and again in our workshops, and a way in which many young people who live in rural areas feel disregarded by politicians. In general, however, it can be said that issues in urban and rural areas are not so different: everywhere, we meet with creative, courageous, and committed people who want to keep up with society.

Daniela: Does political education belong in schools? Or is it instead something that should be “private”? 

Cesy: Political education definitely has a place in schools. School is a critically important location because “everyone” can be reached there – even those who come from less politicised families. However, going on my experience of it, political education in schools also needs to be revolutionised. If there is one thing we have learned from German-German history [East German-West German history], it is that there is a difference between knowledge and action. It is not enough to learn how the state is structured and how elections work, or how dictatorships come to power. We also need to learn how to take action, how to actively stand up for human rights and democracy, and how to save ourselves from losing heart, even if we live in a world of multiple crises. This is precisely where approaching the subject via art helps people to embrace action. We stop questioning everything and we try things out, we dare to do something. Courage is a muscle that needs to be trained, similar to empathy or creativity. In my opinion, training for political action is something that is missing from classical political education in schools.

Daniela: On your homepage, I read that you are active in Brandenburg, Thuringia, and Saxony. Are you also planning to expand? 

Cesy: We also work outside this region when we have an interest, for example in Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Austria. But our subsidies are currently mainly in these federal states. I like the idea of combing through a stretch of land until you really know everything and have built a deep, familiar connection. I feel like we’re just getting started, even though we’ve been working in this place for over 5 years.

Daniela: The wording of “Radical Daughters” – and the videos on your homepage – also have a rather “martial” quality: the music, the camera work, your outfit. In your opinion, is this radical, combative, violent quality an integral part of the political process?

Cesy: I wouldn’t call it violence – but it should be powerful. It involves a force, because in order to be able to act, I have to feel self-effective. What we are working with is often the feeling of anger, which is a very strong and powerful emotion in a political context. Of course, the videos and the pictures on the homepage can also be regarded as somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Used in this way, humour is also an incredibly powerful emotion.

At the same time, however, I am also convinced that protest must hurt. Protest and disobedience in the broader sense are an important topic in the workshops – especially for Flinta* people, who are socialised as female and therefore tend to be more reserved. I will also say that it is not about violence directed against people, but about powerful emotions and active disobedience.

Daniela: Are there any action artists who are important to you, whose methods you find interesting? Perhaps even artists who served as role models for you?

Cesy: I find the Guerilla Girls very exciting because, on the one hand, they are subversive and rebel against their own art scene as artists and, on the other hand, they have found their methodology in anonymity. The lack of anonymity is a particularly big issue in rural areas because everyone knows everyone else. In the workshops, we use the Guerilla Girls to demonstrate to the students how to undertake effective resistance without exposing themselves personally. I come from the acting world, and have always been fascinated by Christoph Schlingensief, whose concept of theatre broke down all boundaries. And, of course, the work of Pussy Riot shows that they have a great deal of courage. I admire their opposition to the regime and how much they are willing to risk for it.

Since 2019, Radical Daughters have been inspiring effective, unusual forms of political participation in their workshops. Their training programme of action, art and politics is designed to ignite the spark - to show how easy it can be to take action. For a critical mass that is passionately on fire again: For democracy. For human rights. For social justice. For freedom, equality, siblinghood.