LGTBI Museums: conference, exhibitions and guided visits

20/06/2022 - 14:53 h - LGBTI Maria Sanz

On 30 June, the Barcelona LGTBI Centre is hosting the “LGTBI+ Museums” conference, which via various round tables will seek to explore the main concepts of sexual and gender diversity, reflect on the dynamics of creating LGTBIQ+ culture and explain the example of some museums that have undertaken initiatives to eliminate barriers and include sexual and gender diversity narratives in museums.

The conference starts at 11 am, with a presentation from the director of the LGTBI Centre, Andreu Agustín, along with Lina Ubero, from the Activities and Audiences discussion group and Joan Vicens Tarré, the president of the Catalan Museologist Association.

This will lead into the first round table, “Permeability, dissidence and margins”, which will ask questions about the limits and possibilities of museums and culture reaching beyond the status of cultural institutions. Participants will include Henrique Lukas (Brazil), a researcher and participant at the La Raza Cósmica laboratory, Margherita Fabbri (Italy), transfeminist researcher, militant and writer, and Luna Acosta (Colombia), visual artist, researcher, translator and teacher.

Within this round table, it is considered important to speak about queer issues from a decolonial perspective, in order to create a space for reflection and debate about affective, sexual and gender diversity contrasted with imperialism, colonialism and Eurocentrism, which have historically reproduced the binary sex-gender system and the erasure of other non-hegemonic identities.

The discussion will then continue from a standpoint that questions the cisheteronormative position, concerning the productions we have access to as an audience and the way in which tasks are distributed within cultural institutions. This is a way to subvert the discursive and curating operations of museums –by making the museum the “subject” of discussion–, in order to focus on culture beyond its institutions.

The conference will continue at 4 pm, with the talk “The case of The Other’s Gaze in the Museo Nacional del Prado”, given by Carlos G. Navarro, from the El Prado Museum.

Then, at 4:45 pm, it will be the turn of the round table “Identity, Diversity and Desire. Queering the Museums?”, a debate to discuss the challenges and controversies generated by including narratives concerning sexual and gender diversity in museums. The participants in this activity include Blanca Arias, an artist-researcher, Carlos G. Navarro, from the Museo Nacional del Prado, and Daniel López del Rincón, a History of Art professor at the University of Barcelona. It will be moderated by Txema Romero, director of the Cerdanyola Art Museum.

The conference is organised in collaboration with the Barcelona LGBTI Centre, the Activities and Audiences discussion group and the Catalan Museologist Association (AMC). To take part, please register on the AMC website: http://museologia.cat/activitat/jornada-museus-lgtbi-46

This activity is part of the L’Orgullosa programme of activities and is also part of the “LGTBI Museums” cycle, which includes a series of activities such as talks and guided visits around the collections.

Museums from an LGTBI perspective

The LGTBI Museums initiative began in 2021, with the aim of transforming the spaces and programmes of various cultural institutions, in order to celebrate sexual and gender diversity.

This year, LGTBI Museums returns under the auspices of L’Orgullosa, and the institutions taking part include: the Picasso Museum, MACBA, theMuseu de Ciències Naturals, the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC), the Archaeology Museum of Catalonia (MAC), the Maritime Museum, the Miró Foundation the La Capella Art Centre and the Barcelona Olympic Museum. 

Temporary exhibitions, guided tours, imagined routes and talks are among the many activities designed to help plant a queer seed highlighting realities which have traditionally been under-represented or excluded from the mainstream narrative.

The activities will invite reflection on several issues, such as the impact of HIV and AIDS on the lives of artists (MACBA) and gender transition and intersexuality (MNAC), through various approaches to collections, guided tours and other specific activities.

From mythical creatures like the Maritime Museum’s mermaids and sexual diversity in the animal kingdom, highlighted by the Natural Sciences Museum, to Picasso’s passion for flamenco, “LGBTI Museums” offers a June full of activities so that people can get together and celebrate LGBTI pride and diversity.

The complete LGTBI Museums programme can be viewed at the L’Orgullosa website.