An interdisciplinary exhibition presenting artists who imagine a new visual politics of queer representation and explore the connection between desires, ways of living and societal change in visible and/or invisible ways.

The organizers of Close[t] Demonstrations chose a title that playfully introduces and signals elements of transparency, publicness, opacity, invisibility and visibility and their liminalities. Closets and the communities they hold are featured ‘closely’; What it means to be public and to demonstrate for equality becomes reflected; And even monsters are ‘(de)monstrated’ and contained by the title.

The exhibition comprises the work of artists from around the world showcasing work that addresses the relationship between the political and the visual, and explores visual aspects of today’s queer lives, struggles and imaginations. The artworks attempt to unearth the power dynamics, pleasures, and desires involved in queer in_visibilty, and the diverse ways queer in_visibilities manifest within (post)colonial, authoritarian, neoliberal, capitalist regimes.

Close[t] Demonstrations includes zines, videos, installations, films, drawings, embroidery, sculptures, ceramics and illustrations, all of which will be in conversation with each other addressing the topic through different techniques and methodologies. The artworks presented are by invited artists as well as artists selected through an open call.

The exhibition showcases 18 artworks by artists from Kyiv, Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg, Helsinki, Athens, Erzurum, Dhaka, Dnipro, Mexico City, Johannesburg, Oaxaca, Almaty and London. The Close[t] Demonstrations exhibition space and catalogue are in some combination of Arabic, Austrian Sign Language (ÖGS), Bangla, Bashkir, Belarusian, Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, Cypriot Turkish, East Frisian, English, Fante, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, IsiXhosa, Kurdish, Nahuatl, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tatar, Turkish, and Ukrainian.

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