Annual theme "Real Magic"
Interdisciplinary Lecture Series (2015/16)

27.10.2015

Occult (Counter)Culture

with Carl Abrahamsson and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (Skype) 

Carl Abrahamsson is a Swedish writer living in Stockholm and an “occultural entrepreneur.” Since the mid 1980s he has worked with a number of artists as editor, music producer, filmmaker, photographer, and curator. For instance, he has worked with Genesis Breyer P-Orridge in the “occultural network” Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth and on the production of records and books. Abrahamsson edits the annual publication The Fenris Wolf, which is dedicated to the interface between art and esotericism. In addition, closely associated with The Fenris Wolf is Abrahamsson’s The Institute of Comparative Magico-anthropology, a combination of archive and think tank. Alongside writing and teaching, his current focus is on filmmaking, above all with the documentary series An Art Apart, which portrays radical artists. www.carlabrahamsson.com

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge is a poet, musician, performance artist, and occultist and one of the most dazzling figures in recent music history. In 1969 she cofounded COUM Transmissions, a subcultural group of British musicians, underground filmmakers, and action and conceptual artists, which led in 1975 to the groundbreaking industrial band Throbbing Gristle. After the breakup of the band, Breyer P-Orridge founded the experimental band Psychic TV in 1981 with Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson and participated in the founding of the occult network Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth (TOPY). At the beginning of the 1990s Breyer P-Orridge and Lady Jane Breyer P-Orridge initiated their Pandrogeny Project, in which both altered their appearances to appear more like each other, striving to challenge or suspend gender divisions and identifications. The Padrogeny Project is being continued to this day by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, even after the death of Lady Jane in 2007. www.genesisbreyerporridge.com