Four years ago, when I turned the last page of the book Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics by Paul B. Preciado, I decided to quit the birth control pills that I was using for almost ten years and the antidepressants for one and a half years. Despite not quitting cold turkey, drug elimination transformed my body intensely. I had nights crying, figuring out the affect of touch and how my senses had been changing. Simultaneously, I was turned on by the idea of gender hacking, by using small amounts of testosterone, yet I realized that neither my past nor my emotional situation would allow that. 

The lecture performance Döner-Blackout or Press Conference: Testo Soap begins with advertisements and continues with a press conference—a fictive situation in the future, like a cabaret of conservative try-outs. The dystopic moment continues with short snippets on pharmocapitalism and Preciado’s wor(l)d-s/ing that made me contemplate the vigorous gender-hackers and the governmental politics around population control such as the contraceptive trials of the US Government on Puerto Rican women in the 1950s or China's compulsory sterilization. I have been wondering: was there a similar method used on Ks? 

Döner Blackout or Press Conference: Testo Soap from Goksu Kunak on Vimeo.

Two different versions performed at 2nd “<Interrupted = “Cyfem and Queer>” symposium Berlin, curated by Creamcake and at the exhibition Hactivate Yourself at 1a Space Hong Kong curated by Tuçe Erel.