In the histories of art exhibitions that we know, LGBTQIA+ artists and curators have always been underexposed or forgotten. Here we have a collection of case studies, interviews and essays, edited by Bas Hendrikx, Léon Kruijswijk and Valentina Iancu, that emphasize different queer exhibitions and their modes of presentation and archiving. Many of these projects were short-lived or were executed between the walls of the private or domestic space, far beyond the scope of any institutional recognition. Therefore, the exhibitions materialized on limited budgets, were hardly documented and received barely any media coverage. For this reason, the legacy of these projects is highly dependent on personal archives, memories and paraphernalia, whereof the entries are not always easy to find. The events were not only artistic, but they could equally be discursive, activist and educational, or serve as a tool for community building. At the intersection of queerness and contemporary art, Queer Exhibition Histories investigates how the efforts of LGBTQIA+ artists and curators have advanced their public presence.

Paperback, published in 2023, 288 pages

The articles and authors

Introduction by Bas Hendrikx

It must be great being you watching us
by Aleksandra Gajowy

Letting the “Freak Flag Fly”
by Sylvia Sadzinski

Sinful Sick Monsters Making Freaky Art Exhibitions
by Valentina Iancu

Museums, Galleries, and Archives of LGBTQ+ Displacement
by Rían Kearney

The Scene of the Obscene
by Aaron Betsky

Philippe Thomas ‘Feux Pales'(1990)
by Élisabeth Lebovici

A Personal Account of The Teaches of Peaches
Jessica Gysel

Real Art on Love AIDS Riot Sex
by Léon Kruijswijk

Interview with Leonida Kovač
by Karol Radziszewski

In the Name of Pleasure, Power and Radical Difference
by Pauline Boudry/Renate Lorenza and Övül Durmuşoğlu

Musing on a Queer Museum of Failure
by Liang-Kai Yu

Just for the Pleasure
Katarina Pirak Sikku and Sara Salminen

Faggot Exhibitions
by Edwin Nasr

Exhibition and AIDS in France
by François Piron

Queer Vistas
An Interview with Tawanda Appiah by Bas Hendrikx

The Body and the Burlesque
by Halyna Hleba and Kateryna Iakovlenko

Untold Stories
by Katrin Kivimaa

Afterword
by Simone Wegman