Queering the Narrative
NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen, Germany
Queering the Narrative
Soufiane Ababri, Kira Bunse, TM Davy, Josh Faught, Elburuz Fidan, Jenna Gribbon, Philipp Gufler, Harry Hachmeister, Constatin Hartenstein, Christopher Hartmann, Evan Ifekoya, Artor Jesus Inkerö, William E. Jones, Sholem Krishtalka, Martin Maeller, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Aiste Stancikaite, Luki von der Gracht
Opening program:
Performance, 6 p.m.: Soufiane Ababri (idea and conception), Mahdi Sehel and Ahmed El Gendy (performance).
Greeting, 7 p.m.: Dr. Werner Dohmen, Chairman of the board NAK
Introduction, 7:15 p.m.: Maurice Funken, Director NAK
Concert, 9 p.m.: Kay Shanghai (Hotel Shanghai Records)
NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein is pleased to present the group exhibition Queering the Narrative. The exhibition brings together for the first time at the Kunstverein 19 national and international artists, all of whom consider themselves to belong to the LGBTQIA* spectrum.
Against the backdrop of prevailing heteronormative and reactionary manifestations of identity and their artistic representation, the group exhibition raises the question of queer identity and narratives and their influence on the artistic work of the participants.
With Queering the Narrative, the Kunstverein deliberately and exclusively offers space for diverse, queer positions in contemporary art. The public representation of queer issues in all media, including art, continues to draw social criticism today. This varies in intensity, based on the social and political systems as well as the geographically conditioned history in which queer concepts are negotiated, but never seems to be completely silenced, although the acceptance of queer content in the shelter of a museum or exhibition institution is growing. There, art not only succeeds in questioning heteronormative values and codes, but also shows other points of view and perspectives, while creating identification potential for queer people. With the intention of increasingly inscribing queer images in the collective pictorial memory, ideally the fight for LGBTQIA* rights is also strengthened and a normalization of queer lifestyles is pushed forward.
The selected works in the exhibition at the NAK come from various genres, so painting meets graphics, photography, installation, sculpture or video. The works sometimes reveal interdisciplinary interfaces, but are also interconnected in terms of content and aesthetics in the exhibition context, thus forming a complex web of codes and narratives. The subjects of the works are particularly diverse, both private and political in nature, partly representational, partly abstract, but always committed to the question of queer identity, to the writing of (one’s own) queer history.
Following the idea of Queering the Narrative, the Kunstverein would like to push the institutional discourse on queer contents and positions in the field of exhibitions and question the politics of power and visibility, especially in the art world. Queer identity and queer art are to be understood as a pluralistic, changeable concept, which in its manifold and positively occupied manifestations is placed complementarily alongside a heteronormative society. Queerness as a gift, you’re welcome.
Going beyond the artistic productions of the exhibition, performances, lectures and workshops will evoke alternative, as queer, spaces of action in order to foreground performative and transgressive conceptions of LGBTQIA* identity. The corresponding program accompanying the exhibition can be found promptly on the NAK homepage and will be announced on social media.
Installation images courtesy NAK and photography credit: Simon Vogel. Individual image by Ludger Paffrath.