Carlos Motta, Still from “The Crossing”, 2017, courtesy: the artist
Exhibitions at the Stedelijk focus on LGBTQI identity ‘Zanele Muholi’ on view 8 July to 15 October 2017, and ‘Carlos Motta: The Crossing’, on view 16 September 2017 to 7 January 2018, focus on LGBTQI identity in South Africa and Near Asia.]]>
Source: Stedelijk Museum
Zanele Muholi
This summer, the Stedelijk Museum is bringing the young South African photographer Zanele Muholi to Amsterdam. Muholi is renowned for her socially engaged photography and portrayal of black LGBTQI identity in contemporary South Africa. The Stedelijk presents a selection of work from “Faces and Phases” (2006 – the present), a cycle of powerful, moving and penetrating portraits of women of South Africa’s lesbian community, from the series Brave Beauties, about transgender people, and from her most recent project “Somnyama Ngonyama” (Hail, the Dart Lioness), which also features the artist. Her photo series offer a sensitive and often witty analysis and critique of stereotypical depictions of black lesbian women. Muholi was awarded the Prins Claus prize at the end of 2013; in 2015, the Stedelijk acquired four of her works. The exhibit is curated by Hripsimé Visser.
Carlos Motta: The Crossing
In “The Crossing”, a work made especially for the Stedelijk Museum, the Columbian artist and activist Carlos Motta explores themes relating to refugees. The video installation shows the viewer how the Netherlands dealt with refugees, migrants and minorities now and in the past, specifically from a LGBTQI perspective. Motta came to Amsterdam in early February of this year to make ten video portraits of LGBTQI Muslim refugees from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Lebanon and Pakistan who are currently living in Dutch asylum seekers’ centres. In the interviews, they talk about why they left their homeland, how they found their way to the Netherlands, and the welcome they received. Their stories are moving and intimate – rarely-heard revelatory narratives of exclusion, mental and physical humiliation, as well as solidarity and pride. Carlos Motta’s cross-disciplinary installations tell the stories that are silenced – narratives excluded from official histories – to give a voice and place to oppressed histories, marginalised communities and identities. The presentation is curated by Martijn van Nieuwenhuyzen.
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