Queering the Archive

Kimberly Austin, Cecilia Barriga, Mary Coble, Aleesa Cohene, MichElmgreen & Ingar Dragset, Conny Karlsson, Heidi Lunabba, Al Masson, Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, Flemming Rolighed, Tejal Shah, Ingo Taubhorn

How can we create an archive of the private memories of gender, love and sexuality that have been erased by official archives and excluded from the writing of history? How do we record and store feelings and intimacy? In the exhibition Lost and Found: Queerying the Archive these issues are addressed from queer perspectives through art works offering alternative histories and reworked archives.

Lost and Found - Queerying the Archive, curated by Jane Rowley and Louise Wolthers, is an international show of 13 contemporary artists focussing on memory and history in relationship to gender and sexuality. The exhibition is presented at Bildmuseet in close collaboration with Umeå Centre for Gender Studies and is accompanied by a series of seminars, artist’s talks and lectures. Using the potent and emotionally laden detritus of society, like silent movie footage, a jukebox archive of pop songs and alternative family photo albums, the art works in Lost and Found present new readings of the past or produce other archives. Using photography, video, installations and performance, the artists in the exhibition challenge official versions of history with humour and intelligence, tenderness and rage.