The Beginning of Identification, and its End at Filmfestivals

 

The Beginning of Identification, and its End

by Philipp Gufler, 2024

19 min.
Music: Rory Pilgrim
Camera and color correction: Leo van Kann
Sound: Nathalie Bruys
Speaker: Susanne Sachsse
Contains adaptations of a performance by Ben d’Armagnac at Brooklyn Museum, New York, 1978 and text fragments from Karl Heinrich Ulrichs’s books Forschungen über das Räthsel der mannmännlichen Liebe, 1864–1880.

The short film by Philipp Gufler initially exhibits a binary situation: light blue and pink, flexibly assigned to two genders historically. This binarity liquefies in a lovely, obscuring initial development, androgynous bodies from various times appear with a text by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, a pioneer of the ›third sex‹ theory. In the 19th century, he called for the public visibility of sexual diversity, as an imperative addressed to the »Uranians«: Expose yourselves, carry societal contempt onto the political stage, demonstrate solidarity with other oppressed people! An imperative of identification, a beginning of the history of queer emancipation. The circular form of the planet Uranus, for Ulrichs a utopian place of self-empowerment, is juxtaposed with the rectangular form of a tile trapezium. In it, the nude artist surrenders to a jet of water aimed at his heart. A ›naked body shot‹ that comments on the investigative, fixating gaze of society on the ›actual‹ gender of human beings. Here, Gufler cites a performance of Ben d’Armagnac from 1978, but is, in contrast with him, nude. The heart region symbolically hit by the jet of water becomes the erogenous zone of passivity. The second movement of the work leads to the end of the emancipation narrative. On the right side of the screen appear the right-wing positions of the ‘bad gays’ of our time (Pim Fortuyn, Alice Weidel, a neo-Nazi), in the historical footsteps of Ernst Röhm; self-confident gays and lesbians who have rejected solidarity, aim their toxic water at everything weak and at all sexual intermediaries and work to reconstruct binary conditions that allow for no third sex. The artist leaves the frame. (Jan Künemund for Videonale.20)

TRAILER

Filmfestivals

71. International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen (World Premiere)

German Competition

3. – 4.5.2025

Further Information

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Divine Queer Film Festival

Turin, Italy

23. – 25.5.2025

Further Information

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Queering the Belvedere

Blickle Kino im Belvedere 21, Vienna, Austria

12.6.2025, 18:30

Further Information

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Contexts Festival of Ephemeral Art in Sokołowsko

Kino zdrowie, ul. Główna 36, Poland

17.7.2025, 22:00

Further Information

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49. Open Air Filmfest Weiterstadt

Filmzelt, Weiterstadt

16.8.2025, 20:22

Further Information

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15. Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest

13.-21.9.2025

Further Information

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Nederlands Film Festival

20.9.2025, 8 pm

Louis Hartlooper Complex, Utrecht, NL

Further Information

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Six Quilts

A Public Art Project at the Sports Facility at Ebereschenstrasse 15, Munich

The artist Philipp Gufler has been working on his quilt series since 2013, and it includes the six pieces now permanently installed at the sports facility at Ebereschenstrasse 15 in Munich. An artist’s book about the first thirty works of the series was published in 2020. The main impetus behind the works in this series is to make queer history visible—meaning, to give visibility to the histories of lesbian, gay, bi- and asexual as well as non-binary, trans- and intersex people. Every quilt is dedicated to a person, a place, or an important moment in queer history. The combination of images and texts, screen-printed onto transparent fabrics, visualizes something that is still missing in history books: experiences and life stories outside of what for a long time was, and partially still is, considered the “norm.” 

At the same time, the transparency of the fabrics also embodies the ephemerality of memories and underlines the importance of producing an inclusive kind of historical narrative. The choice of medium is particularly important for the series: at its most essential, a quilt is a piece of fabric that has been pieced together out of different snippets of fabric. In the North American context, it is considered an heirloom object that can be handed down from generation to generation. With his works, Gufler connects to that same idea: continuing history and passing it on. 

The quilt format is also associated with the US-based Names Project Foundation, which started working on a quilt for the countless long-ignored victims of the AIDS crisis back in 1987. With his works, Gufler too wants to remind people of those who were long forgotten and give them their deserved place in history. The artist underscores this goal in choosing the measurements of his fabric works. At a size of 180 x 90 cm, they are modeled on the proportions of the human body. The combination of these measurements and the transparency of the material produces visual works that can be read as historical archive turned art, alluding to the precarious situation of queer people and their past. 

Introduction by Nicholas Maniu

Texts on the Quilts by Philipp Gufler

Quilt #39 (Alexander Sacharoff) by Nicholas Maniu
Quilt #40 (Karl Heinrich Ulrichs) by Albert Knoll
Quilt #41 (Women’s Resistance Camp Hunsrück) by Nicholas Maniu
Quilt #42 (Guido Vael) by Sabrina Mittermeier
Quilt #44 (Hof-Atelier Elvira) by Linda Strehl
Quilt #45 (Justin Fashanu) by Christina Spachtholz

Interview with Mareike Schwarz at QUIVID

Fotos: Franzi Müller Schmidt & Peter Schinzler for QUIVID Kunst am Bau München

BRANDHORST FLAG COMMISSION: PHILIPP GUFLER

 

9 September 2023 until 15 March 2024

9 September, 11 am, BREAKFAST AND COMMISSION VIEWING with PHILIPP GUFLER and a t-shirt sale for FORUM QUEERES ARCHIV MÜNCHEN

Starting in September 2023, Amsterdam and Munich-based artist Philipp Gufler will occupy the space with a new work. With his signature approach, he recontextualizes queer history in his often textile-based works. Rather than depicting complex overlays as in his silkscreen prints on fabrics and mirrors, for “Urning” he uses the visual impact of the medium of the flag.

 In his flags, Gufler places the lawyer Karl Heinrich Ulrichs at the center of his work, using Pop Art aesthetics. Ulrichs coined the term “Urning,” which, in reference to the Greek god Uranos, was the first to formulate queer identity through a positive self-designation. At the German Jurists’ Forum, held at the Odeon in Munich on August 29, 1867, he demanded impunity for same-sex love. Although the term “Urning” did not catch on, Ulrichs has become a central source of inspiration for queer theory. Gufler links this historical importance to a significant poster campaign by the initiative Act Up Munich, which gained notoriety in 1995 for its protest against local Bavarian politicians. He updates the AIDS awareness campaign and creates a link between the historical treatment of queer identity and its relevance to current debates.

Curated by Dr. Monika Bayer-Wermuth

More Information.

BRANDHORST MUSEUM
Theresienstraße 35A
80333 München

The T-shirts can be ordered S, M, L, XL in white, S, M, XL in gray and S, M, XL, XXL in light blue at Forum Queeres Archiv München or here for 20 Euro plus shipping costs. With the purchase of a T-shirt you support our voluntary archive work.

Fotos: Haydar Koyupinar