Witches, magicians, spiritualists, healers and shamans adorn the walls of Barcelona's LGBTI Centre in an exhibition that aims to re-appropriate elements of different religions and spiritualities, in order to give them a new meaning and an unmistakeably queer dimension.
Barcelona LGBTI Centre presents “Encanteris i dissidències”, an exhibition from the heart, one that as an exercise in queer art, re-appropriates elements from religions and spiritualities to construct new narratives based on the representation of sexual, affective and gender diversity.
The exhibition includes creations by a dozen artists and activist collectives from Europe and Latin America, which are all on display together for the first time and interact with each other thanks to the curatorial work of Julia Pardo and Xeito Fole, from the programming team at the LGBTI Centre.
Almost as if it were a stroll through a kind of queer temple, the altars of the exhibition space at the LGBTI Centre will be filled with witches, magicians, spiritists, healers and shamans, as well as saints, angels and deities. The exhibition is open to visitors from 13 October to 30 December, and on 25 October there will be a presentation of the exhibition together with a dialogue between the people who contributed to it.
Among the exhibits is the Santo Coño Insumiso de Barcelona, an installation created by Andalusian activists in Barcelona in solidarity with the feminists from Seville and Malaga who were charged with alleged religious hate crimes for carrying this figure of a giant plastic vagina in a protest demonstration reminiscent of Easter processions in Spain.
Also on display is the audiovisual piece “Àngel Negre”, a work by activist and intersex researcher Mer Gómez that reinterprets religious iconography through the lens of sexual diversity. The piece was produced as part of the activity “Mirades insubmises. Thinking about sexual diversity and desire through art” at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC).
The exploration of roots, the vindication of genealogy and the attempt to heal the scars of one’s own ancestry are present in the works of the Las Migras de Abya Yala collective, a group of artists who rediscover traditional methodologies and use error, affection and humour as valid artistic pathways. Thus, through their work they rediscover photographs from the family album, and techniques such as textile art or photo-embroidery. These pieces come from the exhibition “Travesías entre ensoñaciones y tempestades”, organised by feminist art collective FemArt in the Ca La Dona exhibition space.
The irreverence and provocation in the collages by Canarian artist and writer Roberta Marrero; the ironic prayer of those taking part in the first Jornades Estatals Autogestionades sobre Bisexualitat [Self-managed State Conferences on Bisexuality]; the vindication of the memory of witches in the collage by Leticia P.F. de Bobadilla, and the magic of medicinal, protective and ritual plants depicted in illustrations by Natalia Saldaña and Rapha Hu complete this singularly dissident pantheon.
The “Encanteris i dissidències” exhibition is part of the Barcelona LGBTI Centre’s “Espiritualitats” programme of activities whose aim is to reinstate spirituality as a pathway to personal and collective liberation, as something that reaches beyond monotheistic religions and has great value and potential for the LGBTQIA+ community both today and in historical terms.