I samarbete med Status Queer och SAQMI – The Swedish Archive for Queer Moving Images har vi bjudit in fotograferna och konstnärerna Del LaGrace Volcano, Elsa Groener och Eli Eli Eli! till ett samtal som utforskar begreppet queer och fotografisk representation. De deltagande konstnärerna har alla arbetat med fotografi och undersökandet av sig själva och sitt community. Med nedslag i den egna praktiken för de ett generationsövergripande samtal om queert fotografi och på vilket sätt mediumet har spelat en avgörande roll i uttrycket av social och personlig identitet. 

Samtalet är på engelska och modereras av Sam Message.

English text below

Deltagare:

Del LaGrace Volcano Del LaGrace Volcano, an artist and activist based in Sweden for 15 years. Del is best known as a still photographer and has been photographing queer scenes and queer personalities & celebrities since the 1970s, mainly in San Francisco and London. Del LaGrace Volcano is a gender variant visual artist and cultural producer working with the body and gender/sexual identity notions for both social, political and personal purposes. Volcano is considered one of the pioneers of queer photography. 

Elsa Groener Elsa Groener is a visual anthropologist, filmmaker and photographer based in Gothenburg. Her curiosity for human mannerisms, feelings, gazes and speech drives the exploration of how we can tell our stories in images and sound. She is interested in the relation between the body and societal architectures and how this relationship shapes our queer experiences. Together with Status Queer they present their photography project PEEK! – exploring the gawks and gazes faced by queer people in public spaces. Working in busy public spaces, they capture reactions to Status Queer’s drag characters Meatling the Meatbaby (Sam Message) and Sinfluencer (Kolbrún Inga Söring).

Eli Eli Eli! Eli Eli Eli is a German/Danish artist based in Gothenburg. They have studied photography at KBH film- og fotoskole in Copenhagen and at HDK-Valand in the department of Fine Art Photography. Eli’s work often revolves around themselves and their community. The camera is used as a tool to understand themselves better as a queer person and to give space to bodies and voices that haven’t always had a space in the gallery room. Insisting that we exist – and an archive for the future (we existed). 

Status Queer Status Queer is Gothenburg based artist duo Kolbrún Inga Söring and Sam Message. Together they use art and culture to build a more sustainable, supportive and inclusive LGBTQ+ community. In their practice they use spatial and relational interventions to weave new connections and strengthen old bonds between diverse peoples.

SAQMI For the first time ever in Sweden The Swedish Archive for Queer Moving Images are compiling the history of queer moving images and storing it all in one place. A history that has been marginalized through oppression and self-censorship. Through methods such as documentation, interviews, archiving, screenings, presentations, workshops and discussions, the first platform of queer moving images in Sweden has been created. Please visit www.saqmi.se for more information.

Welcome to a panel discussion about queer identity and the use of photography.

In collaboration with Status Queer and SAQMI (The Swedish Archive for Queer Moving Images) we have invited the photographers and artists Del LaGrace Volcano, Elsa Groener and Eli Eli Eli! to a conversation that explores queer identity and photographic representation. The participating artists have all worked with photography and the investigation of themselves and their community.  Using their practice as a starting point, they will have an intergenerational conversation about queer photography and how the medium has played a pivotal role in the expression of social and personal identity.

The programme features both still and moving image by the artists and the panel.

The panel discussion will be moderated by Sam Message and will be held in english.

Evenemanget är ett samarbete med ABF Göteborg och stöds av Göteborgs stad.