Our Vanishing | Porter témoignage (2019)
Curator: Jamie Ross
Our Vanishing was an exhibition of archival and contemporary artworks responding to the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalization of anal sex laws in Canada.
In 1969, the crime of sodomy was removed from Canada’s Criminal Code. If only two people enjoyed it on private property, anal sex, which had previously carried a 14-year prison sentence upon conviction, was declared to be no longer a crime.
In the new legal landscape, divisions of appropriate sexual expression hardened around notions of public and private space. The government had opened the bedroom door to assimilation and homonormativity for some of the populace. Nevertheless, our 2LGBTQ communities’ rich collective expressions have demonstrated brilliant resistance to Canada’s hollow narratives of progress and assimilation, and the effects of ongoing criminalization of some expressions of LGBTQ life.
Commissioned by MediaQueer, this exhibition celebrates Queer life on the 50th anniversary of partial decriminalization, this lucid, critical, and playful exhibition features archival works from the collections of VIVO Media Arts, Vidéographe, les Archives gaies du Québec, the ArQuives, and ARTEXTE, alongside works by collectives such as the Front de Libération Homosexuelle and works that flutter out of the archive by contemporary artists Hazel Meyer, David Widgington and Projet Hybris.
Articles
‡ August 8-24, 2019
Montréal, arts interculturels, Montréal