Philipp Gufler: Dis/Identfication at Kunsthalle Mainz

Mittwoch, 21. Februar 2024

Dis/Identfication at Kunsthalle Mainz

DIS/IDENTIFICATION

8th of March – 16th of June 2024

Opening
Thursday, 7th of March 2024, 19:00

Curated by Yasmin Afschar

Images and (hi)stories of queer life both today and in the past are at the heart of Philipp Gufler’s artistic oeuvre. Key persons in history, developments and incisive events from different periods all enter into dialog and tell an intersectional queer story. Gufler comes across his source material in historical archives, newspapers, radio and TV, and his reference points originate in literature and the aesthetic practices of the LGBTQIA+ movements, in queer theory, and in Pop culture. Gufler reflects on these in film essays, but also in performances and pictorial objects, in paintings on mirrors or silkscreened fabrics (the quilts as he calls them today feature 53 different textiles and are dedicated to queer people, movements, and places).

In his largest solo exhibition to date, starting with a new video installation entitled The Beginning of Identification, and its End. Gufler offers a survey of his creative output of recent years. It does not just tell us the “hi/stories of heroes”. Gufler's approach always leaves scope for the dark sides and the controversies. The focus is on identification but also on “disidentification” and thus on the limits of queer categories of identification.

The exhibition will be accompanied by Philipp Gufler’s first monograph, including texts by Karolina Kühn, Louwrien Wijers and Yasmin Afschar.

PUBLIC PROGRAM

Fade into You - film program on oral-history-practices with Philipp Gufler
Wednesday, April 10, 7 pm at Kunsthalle Mainz

Film program on AIDS & activism with Philipp Gufler, Marc Siegel and Sarah Horn
Thursday, May 2, 7 pm at Medienhaus (Wallstrasse 11, Mainz)

Finissage: Artist talk & book-launch
Sunday, June 16, 3 pm at Kunsthalle Mainz