Art Madrid'23 – A cultural cycle to reflect upon the history of LGTBIQ activism

 

 

Although nowadays talking about the LGTBIQ collective is usual and, fortunately, many social boundaries regarding the understanding, adapting and integration of the group have been overcome, the truth is that a large lack of awareness on the nature of the transgender problem does still exist. Actually, we no longer talk of LGTB, but of LGTBIQ, in order to include within this acronym a reality that is not new, but that only recently has started to be understood and attended by the society together.

 

 

 

 

The initiative puts together the work of activists, artists and researchers in a program that offers workshops, exhibitions, cinema, music and performances. But the cycle also wants to document the changes that happened in the collective awareness, the political treatment and the cultural construction in regard to this group since the democratic Transition. The goal is to go deeper into the visibility of the collective with a historic perspective to understand its diversity from a sociological and political dimension, and what has been its evolution in the past forty years.

 

 

 

 

The program was displayed in three main locations: the Centro Cultural Conde Duque, CentroCentro and Matadero Madrid. Fefa Vila Núñez was the artistic curator of the project, which is framed within the activity World Pride 2017 of the city council of Madrid.

Precisely during these days, the Cineteca of Matadero Madrid hosts the projection of the documentary “Talking back. Memorias transfeministas queer/cuir”. This work focuses on understanding this figure, which takes its name directly from English and has developed an evolved meaning beyond the pejorative idea of “weird” linked traditionally to homosexuality.

 

 

 

 

 

And until the 1st of October, the exhibition “Nuestro deseo es una revolución. Imágenes de la diversidad sexual en el Estado español (1977-2017)” will be open at CentroCentro. This project gathers images of the evolution of the LGTBIQ activism since the first claiming manifestation in favour of gays and lesbians rights in 1977.

 

Images are taken from the official site of Madrid City Council.

In the year 2020 in the heart of Barcelona a wandering gallery was born, the same one that in February 2021 would debut at Art Madrid with an exhibition proposal focused on contemporary portraits; with this subject matter it would manage to create a powerful dialogue between artwork and audience and make the seal Inéditad remain in the history of the event that contained it.

Jean Carlos Puerto. Protección. Oil and copper leaf on wood. 60 x 48. 2021. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Since that first time and until today, the wandering gallery has managed to build projects on otherness, has repositioned in the spotlight the discourses on the LGTBIQ+ collective, has consolidated a group of artists who share its principles of resilience and empathy and the best thing is that it continues to bet from the professionalism and commitment to give voice to the difference.

Claudio Petit-Laurent.. El Joven de la Perla. Oil on wood. 30 x 30 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Inéditad Gallery, thanks to its founder Luis López, its collaborators and the infinite possibilities manifested in the works of the artists it represents, is a gallery that has demonstrated its capacity and courage to stimulate the sensibility of the public through art and seduce a generation that moves between the glass window and the analogical story. Inéditad is a nomadic gallery that has gathered around it a community of artists and has moved the context with exhibition projects that think about LGTBIQ+ art without prejudices.

Pepa Salas Vilar. Las marcas del arcoiris. Oil on canvas. 40 x 50 cm. 2022. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Pride and Prejudice was inaugurated. An exhibition that brings together the works of sixteen artists: Abel Carrillo, Alex Domènech, Carlos Enfedaque, Silvia Flechoso, Jamalajama, Daniel Jaén, Claudio Petit-Laurent, Jean Carlos Puerto, Fernando Romero, Pablo Rodríguez, Pepa Salas Vilar, Jack Smith, Pablo Sola, Bran Sólo, Elia Tomás and Utürüo. Painting, illustration, photography and digital art are the manifestations that bring into dialogue around fifty neatly threaded pieces, in a discursive line that discusses such a latent phenomenon as discrimination. To achieve this, the artists invited to the exhibition question themselves whether: Does discrimination exist within the LGTBIQ+ collective?

Pride and Prejudice Official Poster. Image courtesy of the gallery.

With approaches on and from the body, the proposal invites to celebrate diversity, proposes to question and self-question the prejudices and attitudes of society against the collective. Pride and Prejudice is a space for dialogue about the constructs imposed on us by society. It is also an oasis in which to deconstruct with tolerance and respect the subjectivities that sometimes prevent us from approaching the production of the participating artists, simply because "the beautiful" does not fit in an androgynous body. The subjugation of stereotypes are pressed with determination to find the beauty of diversity in other palpable facets of reality.

Pablo Sola. All men are dogs. Photography. 2014. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Throughout these three years Inéditad has stimulated the vindictive projection towards bad practices, has questioned estates around the LGTBIQ+ body and the most admirable thing, is that these capacities have resurfaced around the dialogue and the visual narrative of the stories that are told from the visual: Artworks that are people, art that is, per se, humanity. Overcome impositions and accept what is different in order to continue fighting against homophobia, biphobia, lesbophobia or transphobia and defend the equal rights that all the acronyms of the collective deserve in our community.

That's Pride and Prejudice: One creature, the happiest in the world. And maybe other projects and other people have said it - or felt it - before, but none so fairly.

Silvia Flechoso. Hola, soy maricón. Oil on canvas. 73 x 54 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

From June 8th until June 22nd you can visit Pride and Prejudice. Carrer de Palau núm. 4. Canal Gallery space. Barcelona.