Curatorial
Writing
Events
2. Queer Then, Queer Now: 8 Central and Eastern European LGBTQAI+ Artists sustaining the Queer Archive
Małgorzata MycekReaper, 2022
Exerpt from online article:
In her illuminating book Archive of Feelings (2003), feminist and queer scholar Ann Cvetkovich observes how: “The act of archiving personal and collective memories can serve as a form of activism, a way to resist erasure and claim visibility for marginalized experiences.” 20 years on from the publication of this seminal work in the field of queer and feminist theory, across Central and Eastern Europe, LGBTQAI+ people continue to fight for equality and visibility against an unrelenting tide of right-wing hate speech and politics. One of the most notable recent cases is the ultra-conservative Polish government’s introduction of ‘gay-free zones’ in 2021, which has tarnished 1/3 of the country with xenophobic and fascist rhetoric, and reinforces the dangerous interpellation of not identifying heterosexual as ‘abnormal’. Considering that annual suicide rates for Polish LGBTQAI+ people have risen by 16% since the bill’s introduction, the fight for equality for sexual minorities, and changing homophobic legislation and public opinion continues. To coincide with the month of Pride, here are 8 LGBTQAI+ contemporary artists from Central and Eastern Europe who bring visibility to the community, contributing to an ever-growing archive of queer experience
Posted on:
01/07/2024
Author:
Maggie Kuzan
Artists:
Alex Baczyński-Jenkins, Hortensia Mi Kafchin, Karol Radziszewski, LGBT artists, Libuše Jarcovjáková, Liliana Zeic, Maja Čule, Małgorzata Mycek, Queer Archive, Zula Rabikowska
Continue reading: Contemporary Lynx online weekly magazine