Among other things, I’ve taken up smoking - TENT Rotterdam

All the Cunning Stunts, Jay Bernard, Pauline Boudry / Renate Lorenz, Alberto García del Castillo m/ Steev Lemercier & César Segarra, Angelica Falkeling, Hannah James, Alex Mawimbi, Floriane Misslin, Olle Lundin, Rory Pilgrim, Julius Thissen, Geo Wyeth

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With a group exhibition and performance programme TENT engaged with the LGBTQ+ community’s continuing requisite for security and recognition in society and celebrated the optimistic and quirky imagination of this group for a world yet to unfold.

The LGBTQ+ community’s spirited history of activism and struggle for justice and recognition builds on feminism and civil rights movements. The radical survival strategies of the 1980s and ’90s have given way to playful self-representation and lifestyles that do not conform to prevailing standards.

New technologies and digital platforms are playing an important role within this trajectory, with members of LGBT+ groups often engaging via online platforms such as YouTube and Instagram. At the same time, queer representations – once expressions of resistance or intended to claim space and visibility – are increasingly appropriated by mainstream culture and marketing strategies.

embodiment and queer imaginaries
The artists in this exhibition deliberate on LGBTQ+ bodies and communities within society, online, and in popular culture. They are interested in embodying difference, questioning oppressive gender roles, and reclaiming queer words and images as a tool for change. As such, the personal and political are often connected.

For example, together with members of Rotterdam’s LGBTQ+ community, Rory Pilgrim developed a new work addressing the need for a recognisable meeting point to be used in times of need and celebration. The colaboration resulted in the performance ‘Holographic Futures‘.

The collective All the Cunning Stunts presented a monumental wall work in a playful low-tech Photoshop style, that questioned idealised and archetypical representations of queer bodies and relationships, taking queer stock-imagery as its starting point.

Olle Lundin made a new interactive work researching the queer community’s use of hashtags in online environments.

Floriane Misslin’s polyptych uncovered strategies and values behind gender-free identities in contemporary fashion.

Video installations by Hannah James and Julius Thissen both critiqued the oppressive gender constructs around femininity and masculinity.

Geo Wyeth presented ‘Juice CrosxxxSing‘, an instalation and performance that developed around the figure of the crossing guard.

Alberto García del Castillo and Steev Lemercier sang and read from ‘Merman‘, a queer travelogue written by Alberto García del Castillo.

In her performance ‘Repair‘, Angelica Falkeling invited the audience into a TV set, permeated with lo-fi queer kitsch, whose recordings assure upbeat failure.

Among Other Things, I’ve Taken up Smoking was curated by Jesse van Oosten.

Rory Pilgrim’s new work was generously supported by the programme BKOR (Beeldende Kunst en Openbare Ruimte) of CBK Rotterdam.