KÜHN, Karolina; ZADOFF, Mirjam (eds.)
TO BE SEEN. Queer Lives 1900-1950
The contributions that have been assembled in this book – that accompanies the exhibition by the same title at Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism – present the story of queer lives: from the first emancipation movements around the turn of the (last) century via attempts at self-empowerment in the Weimar Republic to the destruction of queer subcultures under the National Socialist regime and the continued discrimination of LGBTIQ* persons in the postwar period.
Through historical testimony and artistic positions from then and now, TO BE SEEN traces queer lives and networks, the areas of freedom enjoyed by LGBTQI+, and the persecution they suffered. Taking an intimate look at a variety of genders, bodies, and identities, it shows how queer life became ever more visible during the 1920s, giving rise to a more open treatment of role models and of desire. During this period, homosexual, trans, and non-binary people achieved their first successes in their fight for equal rights and social acceptance. They organized, fought for scientific and legal recognition of their gender identity, and carved out their own spaces. But as recognition and visibility in art and culture, science, politics, and society increased, so did resistance. After the Nazis came to power, the LGBTQI+ subculture was largely destroyed. After 1945, their stories and fates were scarcely archived or remembered. [publisher's note]
Contributions by Gürsoy Doğtaş, Michaela Dudley, Sander L. Gilman, Dagmar Herzog, Ulrike Klöppel, Karolina Kühn, Ben Miller, Cara Schweitzer, Sébastien Tremblay, Mirjam Zadoff.
Participating artists include Katharina Aigner, Maximiliane Baumgartner, Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz, Claude Cahun, Zackary Drucker & Marval Rex, Nicholas Grafia, Philipp Gufler, Richard Grune, Lena Rosa Händle, Hannah Höch, Paul Hoecker, Nina Jirsíková, Germaine Krull, Elisar von Kupffer, Zoltán Lesi & Ricardo Portilho, Herbert List, Heinz Loew, Jeanne Mammen, Michaela Melián, Henrik Olesen, Emil Orlik, Max Peiffer Watenphul, Jonathan Penca, Lil Picard, Karol Radziszewski, Alexander Sacharoff, Gertrude Sandmann, Christian Schad, Renée Sintenis, Mikołaj Sobczak, Wolfgang Tillmans and others.
Published by Hirmer Verlag, 2023
Exhibition Catalogues / Queer Culture
