Queer Encounters - Vienna Trans L.A.

25.09.2017 - 29.09.2017

California Institute of the Arts, CalArts, Valencia / United States

As part of an exchange project between the CalArts School of Art and members of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, this exhibition presents around twenty-five international artists mainly working in a queer-feminist, anti-discriminatory and decolonial context. Most of them have been studying at the contextual painting class of Ashley Hans Scheirl (experimental filmmaker and painter, artist of documenta 14 in Kassel and Athens) which is known for its focus on identity/gender topics and the trans-aspect in art (as in the transposition between artistic media, the transition between sexes, the transgression of borders limiting the exploration of new libidinous economies etc....).

The positions united in this exhibition reflect this transitive aspect in various ways: the encounter of different cultural backgrounds with contemporary western subcultures and sociopolitical discourses, the shifting of set pieces of myth, folklore, high and low culture, trash and glamour, the exploration of alternate identities as a means of self-empowerment, the use of the body as a translator of various languages and codes as well as the prima materia of artistic expression from which further alchemical transmutations emerge. Intergalactic matriarchy, queer utopia, decolonisation of the body, LGBT-activism, postporn, non-binary club culture and freesytle rap with white-cube institutional criticism are just a few keywords which describe the artistic field presented in this exhibition. As such „QUEER ENCOUNTERS - VIENNA TRANS L. A.“ will cover a variety of artistic fields such as painting, photography, video, installation and performance with a special emphasis on interdisciplinary methods and collaborations between artists.

A part of the exhibition will be dedicated to the Austrian custome jewelry designer Countess Cis Zoltowska, who relocated from Vienna to Los Angeles in the 1960s and lived in West Hollwood until her death in 2004.