Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

GAY

Opening a window on the Queer world

A new exhibition of 'queer' art provides a perfect prelude to this year's Europride festival, writes David Bartal.

Published: 2 July 2008 11:48 CEST
Updated: 1 January 2019 14:36 CET
Opening a window on the Queer world

A Brazilian artist friend tempted me some weeks ago to take a bus to Nacka, on the outskirts of Stockholm, to see a gigantic exhibit of the much-hyped surrealistic photographer David LaChapelle.

His twisted images of the naked, fashionable and glamorous show the dehumanizing effects of consumerism—but frankly, they struck me as cold-hearted and commercial. To add insult to injury, it cost 90 kronor to see his work.

With that bitter disappointment fresh in my mind, I trudged with low expectations a few days ago to the National Museum on Strandvägen, around the corner from the Kungsträgården underground station.

With only a modest number of paintings and sculptures, the exhibit called “Queer: Desire, Power and Identity,” demonstrated the capacity of art to illuminate and provoke fresh ideas.

Several paintings created centuries ago demonstrate convincingly that what is considered a “normal” sexual identity changes over the course of history. In the 17th and 18th centuries, for example, the cosmetics, wigs, ruffles and dresses which we today associate exclusively with romantic females or drag-queens were favoured by the European nobility of both sexes.

Sweden’s warrior king Karl XII (1682-1718) – a favourite of right-wing nationalists in this country–was portrayed on several occasions wearing a dress. Also included in the exhibit is Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt (1751-1814), transformed in one painting into an attractive woman wearing a yellow tunic, mischievously flashing a nipple.

Armfelt was a nobleman who held high office in the military and at the Swedish Royal Court. Sweden’s Princess Hedvig Sofia, the elder sister of Karl XII, was another cross-dresser. She wears a masculine costume, perhaps an allusion to the Greek hunting goddess Diana?

One gets an impression from this exhibit that the Swedish upper classes enjoyed greater freedom than commoners to cross conventional gender lines. Are demonstrations of androgyny a way to manifest power, to show that you are above common rules and limitations?

That lofty idea wasn’t my only reflection at the National Museum press opening. I was also thinking—what if that Swedish television cameraman accidentally films me, and my image is broadcast on national TV in connection with a report on a “queer” art exhibit? Will my friends suspect that I am gay?

Politically incorrect thoughts like that pop up when you least expect them, even if you like to think of yourself as the most tolerant person on earth. There is still a substantial amount of fear and anxiety in the air surrounding homosexuality, even in progressive countries like Sweden.

Stockholm is the place to be right now, however, if you do want to take a peak into the usually invisible world of the homosexual and lesbian. Five major museums, in addition to the National Museum previously mentioned, are staging exhibits showing different perspectives of the gay experience.

The Army Museum, the National Maritime Museum, the Museum of Ethnography, the National Museum of Science and Technology as well as the Nobel Museum are all taking part in this unprecedented project.

And that is just a prelude to the big bash: Starting July 25th, Stockholm will play host to the Europride festival. So take your feather boas out of their cardboard cartons, put some sparkle in your hair—or not–and leave your fears and prejudices at home. Stockholm is opening windows to a part of our community we usually don’t see or recognize, and we are all invited to the party.

See also: Photo gallery

ART

African-born director’s new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

One of the rare African-born figures to head a German cultural institution, Bonaventure Ndikung is aiming to highlight post-colonial multiculturalism at a Berlin arts centre with its roots in Western hegemony.

Published: 8 July 2023 10:13 CEST
African-born director's new vision for Berlin cultural magnet

The “Haus der Kulturen der Welt” (House of World Cultures), or HKW, was built by the Americans in 1956 during the Cold War for propaganda purposes, at a time when Germany was still divided.

New director Ndikung said it had been located “strategically” so that people on the other side of the Berlin Wall, in the then-communist East, could see it.

This was “representing freedom” but “from the Western perspective”, the 46-year-old told AFP.

Now Ndikung, born in Cameroon before coming to study in Germany 26 years ago, wants to transform it into a place filled with “different cultures of the world”.

The centre, by the river Spree, is known locally as the “pregnant oyster” due to its sweeping, curved roof. It does not have its own collections but is home to exhibition rooms and a 1,000-seat auditorium.

It reopened in June after renovations, and Ndikung’s first project “Quilombismo” fits in with his aims of expanding the centre’s offerings.

The exhibition takes its name from the Brazilian term “Quilombo”, referring to the communities formed in the 17th century by African slaves, who fled to remote parts of the South American country.

Throughout the summer, there will also be performances, concerts, films, discussions and an exhibition of contemporary art from post-colonial societies across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.

‘Rethink the space’

“We have been trying to… rethink the space. We invited artists to paint walls… even the floor,” Ndikung said.

And part of the “Quilombismo” exhibition can be found glued to the floor -African braids laced together, a symbol of liberation for black people, which was created by Zimbabwean artist Nontsikelelo Mutiti.

According to Ndikung, African slaves on plantations sometimes plaited their hair in certain ways as a kind of coded message to those seeking to escape, showing them which direction to head.

READ ALSO: Germany hands back looted artefacts to Nigeria

His quest for aestheticism is reflected in his appearance: with a colourful suit and headgear, as well as huge rings on his fingers, he rarely goes unnoticed.

During his interview with AFP, Ndikung was wearing a green scarf and cap, a blue-ish jacket and big, sky-blue shoes.

With a doctorate in medical biology, he used to work as an engineer before devoting himself to art.

In 2010, he founded the Savvy Gallery in Berlin, bringing together art from the West and elsewhere, and in 2017 was one of the curators of Documenta, a prestigious contemporary art event in the German city of Kassel.

Convinced of the belief that history “has been written by a particular type of people, mostly white and men,” Ndikung has had all the rooms in the HKW renamed after women.

These are figures who have “done something important in the advancement of the world” but were “erased” from history, he added. Among them is Frenchwoman Paulette Nardal, born in Martinique in 1896.

She helped inspire the creation of the “negritude” movement, which aimed to develop black literary consciousness, and was the first black woman to study at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Reassessing history

Ndikung’s appointment at the HKW comes as awareness grows in Germany about its colonial past, which has long been overshadowed by the atrocities committed during the era of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.

Berlin has in recent years started returning looted objects to African countries which it occupied in the early 20th century — Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia and Cameroon.

“It’s long overdue,” said Ndikung.

He was born in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, into an anglophone family.

The country is majority francophone but also home to an anglophone minority and has faced deadly unrest in English-speaking areas, where armed insurgents are fighting to establish an independent homeland.

One of his dreams is to open a museum in Cameroon “bringing together historical and contemporary objects” from different countries, he said.

He would love to locate it in Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s restive Northwest region.

“But there is a war in Bamenda, so I can’t,” he says.

SHOW COMMENTS