Dear Rietveld,
Love, Studium Generale

Love for the world, love rooted in collectivity
Workshop with Taka, 7 January at Erwin Olaf's Studio, 10:00 AM-5:00 PM

The workshop is postponed! A new date will be announced soon.

Almost two years ago, the artist Erwin Olaf passed away. Taka Taka shared with him a commitment to supporting and building systems for queer lives — including drag houses and the forms of empowerment that emerge from subverting rigid stereotypes.

After his death, Taka Taka was given permission to use the studio as a space for character workshops with teenagers. This session extends that invitation to others: a shared space for play, experimentation, and simply being together.

The programme includes a short presentation on the history of drag houses, alongside practical exercises that approach art-making as a practice of love and community building.

Image description: Taka stands at the front wearing a colourful costume. Behind them are members of the House of Hopelezz and the House of Løstbois, holding protest signs with handwritten messages focused on trans awareness. The group is dressed in drag, including a mix of trans men and trans women. The photograph was taken at the main national STDs conference in the Netherlands, held in The Hague on 1 December, World AIDS Day.
Image description: Taka stands at the front wearing a colourful costume. Behind them are members of the House of Hopelezz and the House of Løstbois, holding protest signs with handwritten messages focused on trans awareness. The group is dressed in drag, including a mix of trans men and trans women. The photograph was taken at the main national STDs conference in the Netherlands, held in The Hague on 1 December, World AIDS Day.

Panagiotis Panagiotakopoulos (GR), also known as Taka Taka, is the godmother of the drag House of Hopelezz, a sister to many, and the mother of the drag king House of Løstbois. They are the proud drag child of Jennifer Hopelezz and a co-founder of the non-profit Drag King Academy Amsterdam.

Taka Taka identifies as a dragtivist, educator, queer theorist, and independent curator. Since 2013, they have produced performances as an art director for Amsterdam’s sex-positive underground nightclub Church. They trained as a professional make-up artist and studied Fine Arts at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, followed by a Master of Arts at the Dutch Art Institute.

Since 2021, Taka Taka has been researching drag mothering as an artistic and educational model, supported by the DAS PhD programme THIRD. They are currently completing a Professional Doctorate at the Amsterdam Theatre and Dance Academy, focusing on drag mothering pedagogy.

Taka Taka understands drag as an amplified voice, a tool to communicate, problematize, and propose methodologies that respond to specific local and social conditions. They have shared their knowledge and methodologies on drag mothering, gendered character-based practices, and their intersections with HIV through interviews, lectures, essays, and workshops at various Dutch and international art institutions and academies.

They have collaborated annually with SOA/AIDS Nederland, Global AIDS Village, and other organizations. Additionally, they maintain an ongoing artistic collaboration with their bloodline mother, Dimitra Panagiotakopoulou, who lives in the Greek village of Saravali and designs and knits complete outfits for Taka Taka’s lectures and performances.