History Hustory* / Museum of Self-Care
Sat, 3.6.2023 – Sat, 19.8.2023
Opening Fri 2.6.2023; 6pm
The Opening will be accompanied by DJ Terre’ and a drag show with
Miki Moskito & Lia Quirina, Karl Klit, Madame Lea, Roxie Romeo, moderation: Zed Zeldich Zed
On 15.6.2023 5pm there will be a workshop with Nat Schastnev (please register in advance online at education@queermuseumvienna.com )
Details of our programme and any changes www.queermuseumvienna.com or https://www.instagram.com/queermuseumvienna__
How to collect and present the ever evolving, transgressive, uncomfortable, and troubling? How to present the missing and the lost? Who has the power and who has the right? Who decides what is legitimate? To understand the fluid nature of trans* histories and historicities, the violence and discrimination acsribed in gender binarism we look at ways to challenge heteronormativity and patriarchal domination, as well as the scarcity of materials account for trans* lives and experiences.
The exhibition and the various events (workshops, performances) present micronarratives of trans* representation while embarking upon a creative campaign to shine a light on some of the complexities of trans* living and experience in the eastern and southern parts of Europe.
In collaboration with the Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art we are building a Trans*folk toy collection to expand trans*/queer representation through hybrid figuration and noise.
The program is devised by Budapest based curator Lívia Páldi and artivist and DIYer Nat Schastnev.
*inspired by Pronoun Showdown, poster and digital graphic, 2015. Courtesy Motha – Museum of Transgender Hirstory and Art, source: www.motha.net/posters
Participating artists and artivists:
Aliz*a Orlan
Lives and works in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Shame and seduce, 2023
Installation, gauze, beads
In blue when my sex blurs, 2023
Coloured pencils on paper
150×130 cm
All courtesy of the artist
The works of Aliz*a Orlan (she/they) is an exploration of many detailed and subtle strokes.
In her drawings, she creates a kind of “micro-cosmic landscape of identity” full of diversity, emotions and the discovery of one’s own inner self. Through these landscapes, she depicts the metamorphoses of human identity, which are connected by the principles of nature. Aliz*a is an avid gardener, plants and botany have always been central to her life. She transforms various plant and animal motives into non-binary beings with also inspiration drawn from antiquity and matriarchal ancient deities. When creating, she tries to use the gentlest materials and procedures – easily decomposable materials, recycled things of the everyday.
Currently, in addition to drawing, Aliz*a works with gauze, beads and other delicate materials – essential in developing the themes of gender, boundaries between femininity and masculinity, or queer intimacy.
Krëlex zentre: Ruthia Jenrbekova and Maria Vilkovisky
“Welcome to Kazakhstan”, digital print, 2023
“What Do You Mean — Identity?”, digital print, 2023
“Life is an Experiment”, digital print, 2023
All posters created in cooperation with Midjourney bot, commissioned by Krëlex zentre.
Krëlex zentre is an imaginary cultural institution that speaks on behalf of unclassified multitude of creatures, embodied and ghostly, representing translocal queer imaginaries which have not yet emerged and whose reality is always in question. It can be seen as an artwork in the genre of institutional constructivism – a nomadic platform created in response to the local institutional deficiency. It is also an undercover signboard for the various activities of Maria Vilkovisky and Ruthia Jenrbekova since 2012. The duo produces a range of cultural activities, including exhibitions, performances, sounds, images and texts.
The zentre oscillates between Almaty (Kazakhstan) and Vienna (Austria) since 2013.
”Our role is to emancipate the imagination,” – they say – ”which is oppressed by solid reality. Imagination cannot forcibly break through the limitations of the stronger solid reality, but it can transcend and emancipate from its constraints.”
Stela Roxana Pascal
Based in Chișinău, Moldova.
STELA, 2022
video, 15’ 30”, Romanian speaking with English subtitles
Courtesy of the artist.
STELA is a short autobiographic documentary film about a transgender woman from Moldova. Stela is inviting us to have a glimpse on her life, her daily struggles and achievements. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT), social challenges, state bureaucracy, the coming out process, the challenges of (un)acceptance are the key moments in Stela’s reflection on her life.
Pascal’s prize winning debute work was initiated during a workshop of the 2022 Queer Voices International Film Festival in Chișinău with a strong motivation to advocate for the rights and visibility of transgender people in Moldova. A full-length version is currently in the making.
Nika Pećarina
Based in Zagreb, Croatia.
Crvenoj, boji žarene zemlje / To the Earthen Red, 2022
video 18’57”, Croatian speaking with English subtitles,
ceramic objects
All courtesy of the artist.
Nika Pećarina works with audiovisual and performing arts, ceramics, poetry, and gastronomy. He takes notice of sex, thingness, and the transformation of matter, ie. the relation of work and the physical, followed by the distinctiveness and effects of media, measure, form, and the visible, delicacy, smoothness, and smallness.
To the Earthen Red is a minor and intimate reflection on the nature and narratives of clay extraction that traces out the relation of landscape, object, and the senses. Landscapes shown in thermal vision, the making of objects, the visible emission and movements of heat in a certain range, the visibility of energy and its action, changes in light, heat consumed by the human body in moments of work, energy transferred, and energy lost examine the possibilities of dealing with a speculative production of ontological knowledge, ie, issues of being, becoming and ending. The installation hosts elements created in the media of sound, moving images, ceramic objects and poems bound together by a performative instinct. An epic poem meets pottery meets thermography meets the transformation of matter.
Nat Schastnev
Based in Budapest, Hungary.
Nat Schastnev is a trans* artivist, garbage upcycler, a facilitator of community based projects, and an ignorant engineer of noise machines.
Drawing inspiration from the toy section of the Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art Trans*folx toy collection is a project-in-progress an upcycling toy making workshop, a space to phantasize and create together, where speculative fiction meets personal narratives. From wooden cyborgs to noise making machines the future collection proposes an expanded way of trans*/queer representation through hybrid figuration and sound. It invites and builds through individual and collective contributions through workshops and donations.
Upcycling orchestra (Dublin, 2020) sound mix by Nat Schastnev.
Lívia Páldi is a curator and art historian currently based in Budapest, Hungary. Her most recent exhibition project On Violence is on view until 30 July 2023 at the Budapest Gallery.
this exhibition is made possible by the funding and support of
The Austrian Ministry of Culture and Art
& the cultural commision of the 8th district in Vienna
how to reach us:
Queer Museum Vienna in the Volkskundemuseum Wien
Laudongasse 15-19
1080 Wien
Public transport
Tram 5&33 Stop: LaudongasseBus 13A Stop Laudongasse