NY loves QueerMuseu

Why:
The exhibition QueerMuseu, at Santander Cultural Center in Porto Alegre, Brazil was abruptly shut down Sept. 10 , one month before its scheduled closing date, after a dishonest, defamatory protest campaign carried out by the Brazilian far-right-wing, lead by Movimento Brasil Livre (MBL).  

Widely reported in the international press, the show's  closing has emboldened MBL.  Many other cultural events in Brazil are now being targeted for censorship.  At the Campo Grande Museum a painting was removed; at the   São Paulo  Art Museum,  black  curtains were installed covering its  erotic drawings exhibition;   in  Judai, the transgender play "The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven"  was shut down.  What has become known as "The Santander Effect"  is escalating quickly and we need to send a message to Brazil and the world: IT IS NOT OK TO CENSOR ART!  We stand together with our Brazilian sisters and brothers to fight for equality and justice!

 What we're going to do about it:
Censored from Brazil's institutional exhibition space, we will continue QueerMuseu in the world's guerilla exhibition space, starting with a series of projections of images from the show on outdoor elements of NYC's cultural skyline. We're thinking big and for that WE NEED YOUR HELP.

The projection equipment is expensive to rent and we will need professional technical support. Our goal is $7,500, which will allow us to achieve the project's full potential and reach as many people as we can.

We are planning to start our series this coming Saturday, September 23, during Bushwick Open Studios 2017, so we have only 5 days to raise the needed money. Any contribution is acceptable - your gesture of solidarity is most important of all! Please spread the word in support of Brazillian art, its artists and everyone's right to freedom of expression.

NY loves QueerMuseu!!!


What it is QueerMuseu:
Queermuseum: Cartographies of Difference in Brazilian Art, is the first queer exhibition of such scope in Latin America, opened on August 15, 2017 at the Santander Cultural in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Featuring 264 works in various media by 85 Brazilian artists ranging from late 20th century to contemporary,including Candido Portinari, Alfredo Volpi and Lygia Clark. The exhibition explores gender expression and identity in order to challenge canonical assumptions of narrative construction of normativity. Queermuseum’s platform is one of contemporary art built with the inclusion of historical works, taking a non-traditional approach to cartography within a non-symmetrical strategy to address a variety of artistic issues related to gender and representation of difference under a non-heteronormative perspective of curating. 

Queermuseum centers on the concept of “transmuseology” by creating a transversal logic of display further advancing LGBTQ epistemology, dealing with issues such as the impact of difference in institutions though art exhibitions, other senses besides sight, such as tactics of artistic intent, the eroticism of form, cultural cannibalism and specificity, non-gender appropriation, discrimination of cultural forms, racism and representation, and an array of other issues in order to promote an epistemological turn toward a queer perspective of curating. Queermuseum includes an educational program that seeks to enable the audience to learn and experience diversity, LGBTQ and gender, and to live and respect difference with the aim to build a critical inclusive process as a way to involve the public in participating in the field of art.


 More about QueerMuseu:
  About the curator:
Gaudêncio Fidelis (Brazil, 1965) is a curator and art historian specialized in modern and contemporary art from the Americas. He holds an M.A. from New York University (NYU) and a Ph.D. in Art History from the State University of New York. He was the 2015 Mercosul Biennial’s curator. He served as the director of the Rio Grande do Sul Museum of Art (MARGS) from 2011 to 2014.

About US:

Cibele Vieira- Arts and Public Liaison
Cibele is a Brazilian born American artist and is among the 85 artists participating in the QueerMuseu Exhibition. Cibele is also the creative director and project organizer of Making History Bushwick.

Rache O'Connor- Producer
Rachel is a live events & video producer offering a high level of expertise in the production of making smart, creative, stylish, and fun work.
Rachel has produced many hours of television, on-stage, screen and digital content. Producer credits include the Opening Ceremonies of the Special Olympics, televised Riverdance shows, live webcasts of music concerts, Broadway shows and several of the annual Women in the World conferences (including the US, Brazil, UK and India).
Rachel was a creative producer for Blue Man Group and toured extensively in Brazil, leading to her interest in this campaign and love of all things Brazil!

David C. Rompf- Communications and Media relations
David has written for Newsweek, Los Angeles Times, Harvard Review and many other publications, and he has held senior management positions in corporations, academia, and non-profit organizations.

Peter Fox- Artist

Phil Bueheler- Artist

FluidLab - Visual Producers
http://fluidlab.com.br


 
Press links regarding the exhibition shutdown:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/world/americas/brazil-art-show-gender-controversy.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/12/brazil-queer-art-show-cancelled-protest?CMP 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/gender-diversity-art-show-closed-over-protests-in-brazil/2017/09/11/3d0019f4-9720-11e7-af6a-6555caaeb8dc_story.html?tid=ss

https://hyperallergic.com/399883/far-right-santander-shuts-down-brazil-queer-art-exhibition/


https://www.artforum.com/news/id=71064

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/19/brazilian-judge-approves-gay-conversion-therapy?CMP=share_btn_fb