We celebrate the theme year Year of the Wo_men with the opening of the film lounge 12 Moons.

1st Moon: 17.1. – 14.2.2018
In the Beginning, the Mothers

The first cycle of the „12 Moons“ film program is dedicated to the relationships between the filmmakers and protagonists and their mothers. We will show five films, e.g. Small Talk, Winner of the queer film award Teddy of the Berlinale 2017. In it the taiwanese filmmaker Hui-Chen Huang approaches her closed-lipped lesbian mother.

The other film are: Matriarchy (USA 2017), Mothership goes to Brazil (Sweden 2016), I am (India 2012), Mutterstücke – Mothers (Germany 2006)

For „12 Moons“, one of the exhibition rooms at Schwules Museum will turn into a film lounge, with each new moon initiating a new program cycle. Open during regular office hours, the space is conceived of as a site-specific installation inviting visitors to encounter various cinematic formats and international feminist positions.

The series is a yearlong statement against the lack of visibility of wom_en and female perspectives – in audiovisual media, museum settings and in society as a whole. The format examines the filmic representation and construction of femininity_ies and considers the possibility of another gaze.

The year ahead does not aim for a mono-subjective comprehensive exhibition, but is rather conceptualized as a broad search. In collaboration with alternating guest curators, we are entering a one-year project in search for unseen stories, the classics of lesbian and feminist film history, contemporary queer positions and the voices of wo_men of color. We will dig through the internet, turn to the OWLs (older wiser lesbians), ask Porn experts and the community, and sift through festival programs and archives for input on the topics that move us.

“12 Moons” offers insights into everyday lives and desires, and questions relationship structures and power constellations. The program puts the focus on unbearable societal pressures as much as on times of uprising and resistance against coercive gender norms ¬– offering glimpses into the healing powers and utopian fantasies of such moments. The Moons thus represent testimonies to the global struggles of wo_men for respect, self-determination and rooms of unfolding.

Team
Curator: Vera Hofmann
Scenography: with Carolin Gießner and Théo Demans
Programming: in collaboration with alternating guest curators

Vera Hofmann is a Berlin-based multi-disciplinary artist and a member of the board of directors at Schwules Museum.