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. The project is supported by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation under its support prize Catalogues for Young Artists. The Beginning of Identification, and its End (2024) was produced with the kind support of the city of Munich, Launch Pad LaB, Mondriaan Fonds and Sound & Vision.
Philipp Gufler: DisIdentification
Mar 8 – Jun 16, 2024
Kunsthalle Mainz
Mainz, Germany
