The exhibition deals with these topics through reclaiming visual and textual figures of Otherness. Specifically, these positions are thematized through the figures of the witch, the alien, the monster, and the cyborg. Monsters, along with freaks, villains, and perverts, describe just some of the violent insults society levels at LGBTIQ* people, and such associations are also alluded to via queer-coded visual and narrative tropes in film, television, and comics. The alien has been used in both queer theory and creative media, especially by LGBTIQ* people of color, as an allegory for feeling alienated and separated from a heteronormative and white supremacist society. The experience of being the Other, of being outside of or different from heterosexual norms of gender and sexuality, is an experience that unites otherwise disparate experiences within LGBTIQ* communities. For women, especially disabled women and women of colour, this marginalization is further complicated by their position of “Otherness”, in which their experience and contribution are excluded from participation or not considered worth recording.
Reclaiming and reconfiguring the tired tropes by which society identifies these groups gives space for both self-identification and resistance to societal norms, while symbolic tropes offer rich ground for reclaimed self-understanding. It is through this that the exhibition finds new ways of resistance against hostile society.
The witch, the monster, the alien, and the cyborg each walk a line between fiction and contextual reality, popular caricature and fear, oppression and powerful strength. They have the ability to shapeshift by choice, to terrify their tormentors, to find power in otherness and to administer justice in an unjust world. Since LGBTIQ* women have been relegated to these roles, why not root into their intrinsic cultural power, and create new narratives in this radical subjective Otherness?
These topics are thematized by the artists: BYTE Zine, Lo-fi Cherry, Lotic + Matt Lambert, Sadie Lune, RurruMipanochia, Kiona Hagen Niehaus, Luiza Prado and Moran Sanderovich. In this way, the exhibition explores the ways of reclaiming the Other as a tool of resistance.
This is the second iteration of EXTRA+TERRESTRIAL as it tours to the Galerija Miroslav Kraljević from the Schwules* Museum in Berlin, from where it premiered from November 2018 to February 2019.
COVEN BERLIN acts in Berlin as sex-positive transdisciplinary “genderbender” collective, dealing with topics of feminism, love, gender, sexuality and art. It was established in 2013 in Berlin by Lo Pecado and Judy Mièl with a focus on feminist debate and critical thinking through provocative aesthetics, art, essay writing, and events. Today it consists of Harley Aussoleil, Frances Breden, Crab Content, Lorena Juan, Judy Landkammer, Kiona Hagen Niehaus, and Louise Trueheart.
Their recent exhibitions include “PROBAND WERDEN” in the Profamiliacentre in Berlin,” Neodaddyism 100” in the Galerie AVU in Prague, “BEDTIME” in the GalerieMiejska Arsenal in Poznan , “LUCKY” in NeueGesellschaftfürbildendeKunst and first display of “EXTRA+TERRESTRIAL” in Schwules Museum in Berlin.
Curators: Coven Berlin, Ana Kovačić i Iva Paska
The exhibition and publication were funded by the Ministry of Culture of Republic of Croatia and the City of Zagreb. The Miroslav Kraljević Gallery is supported by Kultura Nova fundation, Fundation for arts initiatives, The Canadian Council for Arts and INA d.d.
Languages: English, with Croatian translation
Mobility: The space is down a flight of stairs
Gender-neutral toilets
Nearest public transportation: Across the gallery
This space is child-friendly.
There is seating available – cushions and chairs.
If deaf, there are aspects of the show that are visual that can be experienced, and if blind/blind, there are audio components of the show that can be experienced. We invite you to sit on and gently touch many of the works. (the organizers can point you to these works)
Image description: a collage of plants, motherboards, and more, with text that reads “THIS CRAFT IS THE CRAFT OF WITCHES / THROUGH IT SHE RECITES THE WORDS THAT TIED HER GRANDMOTHER’S TONGUE / AND HER GRANDMOTHER’S GRANDMOTHER / MAKING THEIR FUTURES ANEW.
Copyright: Luiza Prado
