Through an exhibition, series of events, and an opening symposium, the project seeks to invigorate discussion around a queer “We” that looks beyond tolerance or assimilation toward a concept of equality that provides for greater personal freedom. The project draws from Motta’s evolving database documentary wewhofeeldifferently.info, which proposes “difference” as a profound mode of possibility for both solidarity and self-determination.
The exhibition features a video installation based on fifty interviews with an international and intergenerational group of LGBTIQQ academics, activists, artists, politicians, researchers, and radicals. Motta—together with editor Cristina Motta—identified five thematic threads from this research that address subjects ranging from activism to intimacy, art to immigration. Drawing upon early queer symbols and imagery, a series of new sculptures and prints situates narratives of the LGBTIQQ movement in dialogue with developments in art and history, while also considering their critical significance in contemporary queer discourse and culture at large. The design of the Museum as Hub by Carlos Motta and architect Daniel Greenfield—anchored by the installation of multicolored carpeting—gives the gallery an aesthetic and functional makeover that invites extended viewing and collective activity.
The exhibition is curated by Eungie Joo, Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Programs.
The “We Who Feel Differently” website and book were commissioned and published by Ctrl+Z Publishing and Visningsrommet USF, Bergen, with support from Fritt Ord, The Freedom of Expression Foundation, Oslo; Arts Council Norway; Bergen Kommune; and the New York State Council for the Arts.
We Who Feel Differently: A Symposium
New Museum, May 4–5, 2012
The New Museum presents “We Who Feel Differently: A Symposium,” investigating what is at stake and what is made possible by embracing difference as a queer strategy within contemporary art, politics, and society. The two-day symposium, conceived by Raegan Truax, scholar of Performance Studies, and artist Carlos Motta, is moderated by Ann Pellegrini, director of the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at New York University. Please click here for more information.
We Who Feel Differently: Thursday Night Programs
5th Floor – Museum as Hub
Free
During the run of the exhibition, Motta invites local queer artists, activists, and academics to hold public events on select Thursday evenings in the Museum as Hub. Events include a conversation about transgender issues in contemporary art, a lecture on queer and feminist theologies, a workshop on HIV/AIDS activism today, a “cruising” walk, a presentation of a book about queer responses to gay inclusion in the military, and a collective reading of queer texts, all of which address critical issues of contemporary queer culture in the United States.
May 31: Todd Shalom and Juan Betancurth: Sketchy Walk
June 7: Jeannine Tang and Reina Gossett: Love Revolution, Not State Collusion
June 21: Against Equality: Don’t Ask to Fight Their Wars
July 12: Jared Gilbert: Liberation Theologies for Secular Society
July 19: QUEEROCRACY: 30 Years In, 30 Years Out: AIDS Activism Today
August 23: Other Arrangements: An Evening of Screenings Selected by Frédéric Moffet
September 6: Carlos Motta and friends: Collective Reading
About Museum as Hub
The Museum as Hub is a laboratory for art and ideas that supports activities and experimentation; explores artistic, curatorial, and institutional practice; and serves as an important resource for the public to learn about contemporary art from around the world. Both a network of relationships and an actual physical site located in the fifth-floor New Museum Education Center, Museum as Hub is conceived as a flexible, social space designed to engage audiences through multimedia workstations, exhibition areas, screenings, symposia, and events.
Profile
Carlos Motta is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work draws upon political history in an attempt to create counter narratives that recognize the inclusion of suppressed histories, communities, and identities. Motta’s work has been presented internationally at the Guggenheim Museum, New York; P.S.1, New York; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Museo de Arte del Banco de la República, Bogotá; Museu de Serralves, Porto; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens; and Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, among others. He was a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow in 2008. Motta is part of the faculty at Parsons the New School for Design, New York, and Milton Avery Graduate School of Arts at Bard College, Annandale on Hudson.
