It is the looks in the photos that are touching: the seriousness, immediacy, humor and frankness that stand in stark contrast to the staging of the photographs. The second half of the 19th century saw industrialization advance at breakneck speed. It was also an era that saw the invention of photography and – if you believe Foucault – the notion of homosexuality itself as courts and the medical establishment investigated, outlined and criminalized its practice. Identity, image and reception are the three themes common to the three exhibitions that make up C/O Berlin’s Queerness in Photography show opening tomorrow (16.09.2022). It’s as much a celebration as an opening: you can see a performance by artist Mandhla before dancing to music from Bad Puppy and Lotic in the gallery until late into the night. Just don’t forget to look at the exhibits.
In “Under Cover .A Secret History of Cross-Dressers”, for example, the Sébastien Lifshitz Collection shows photographs from 120 years of crossdressing, rebellion, searching and finding. It’s full of amateur shots and full of emotion. For “Casa Susanna . Cindy Sherman Collection”, meanwhile, the photographer presents her private collection of images from Casa Susanna, a secret meeting point and safe space for crossdressers and trans women in 1950s and 60s upstate New York. Sherman, who is known for her own images of costumed subjects, discovered the photos by chance at a flea market. The pictures are full of lightheartedness and joyful experimentation from a time when deviating from heteronormativity had high social costs. The third exhibition, “Orlando”, was curated by Tilda Swinton for American photo magazine Aperture. Sharing a name with Sally Potter’s 1992 film – in which Swinton plays the lead role – the exhibition explores different perspectives on power, our right to form judgements, sexuality and gender. Even though the three exhibitions deal with the same themes, they tell their stories with varied vocabularies: of self-empowerment, legacy, desire and rebellion. In doing so, they fill a void in our collective visual memory that has existed for far too long.
Text: Hilka Dirks / Credit: Mickalene Thomas . Courtesy the artist and Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York; Zackary Drucker . Courtesy the artist and Luis De Jesus, Los Angeles; Anonymous, Guilda, USA, ca. 1950. Sébastien Lifshitz Collection
C/O Berlin, Hardenbergstr.22–24, 10623 Berlin–Charlottenburg; map
Queerness in Photography 17.09.2022–18.01.2023
Opening 16.09.2022 20–1h30 (free admission). Then daily 11–20h.
@coberlin
