archiving queer times and spaces
Goethe-Institut Cyprus, Institut Français de Chypre and Queer Wave in partnership with Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre (NiMAC) present “nono, bad timing!”, a process-based exhibition focusing on archiving queer times and spaces. The project brings together material from Queer as German Folk, which can be visited in its entirety at the Goethe-Institut in Nicosia, the Marseille-based archive of Mémoire des sexualités, whilst for the month of October it becomes a laboratory for new archiving proposals by Cyprus-based cultural practitioners.
The exhibition starts with the recognition that temporal, spatial, and sexual dissonance towards the ‘universality’ of existence are intertwined. With a non-linear approach, the project aims to destabilise well-rehearsed rhythms and discourses to suggest new possibilities for what archiving might mean in this context: how can silenced histories be written and what can these processes empower?
The "Mémoire des sexualités" association has gathered a great amount of documents pertaining to narrating the story of homosexuality in French and international social life, tracing its history from 1978 (the founding of the Groupe de Libération Homosexuelle de Marseille) to 2015. The images included here focus on the activities of the Summer Universities of Homosexualities in 1979.
The material from
Queer as German Folk highlights spaces of empowerment networks. This project took the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots as an opportunity to offer an insight into the history of queer movements in the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, and reunited Germany since the 1960s. Particular emphasis is placed on the manifold relations with US movements.
Adopting the role of resident archivists, the Cyprus-based cultural practitioners explore the necessities and joys of a library/reading space (Loizos Olympios), institutional critique and creating archives of feelings (Gabriel Koureas), dramaturgy and performance (Evita Ioannou), collecting stories and bringing personal archives in public space (Diomedes Koufteros), as well as the use of photography as a tool for exploring identity and constructing narratives (Logan Bellow).
NiMAC is also hosting the fifth edition of Queer Wave: Cyprus LGBTQIA+ Film Festival between 20 - 29th of September.
Curated by: Evagoras Vanezis
Coordinator: Leontios Toumpouris [NS1]
The materialization of nono, bad timing! is funded by the Franco-German Cultural Fund.
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