Next 20th October at 6 pm, in the exhibition venues of the Galleria Civica di Modena (Palazzo Santa Margherita and Palazzina dei Giardini) the opening of the exhibition ‘Changing Difference. Queer Politics and Shifting identities’, curated by Lorenzo Fusi (curator of the Liverpool Biennial) will take place.

Organised and co-produced by the Galleria Civica di Modena and the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, with support from the Culture Councillorship of the Emilia-Romagna Regional Council, the exhibition is a joint venture with Gender Bender, the international Italian festival of contemporary culture, displaying new forms of representation of the body, gender identities and sexual orientation (10th Edition, Bologna, 27th October – 3rd November 2012). This show will examine the work of three influent artists, image-makers and underground cultural operators, highlighting parallels and analogies between them, albeit with respect for the individual artistic sensitivities of each of the protagonists.

Hujar, Morrisroe and Smith all move around that uncertain territory which separates the visibility and the assimilation of ‘difference’. Their works underline the risks inherent in mixing art and life, as well as formal research and political struggles. Their work becomes ever more urgent in the wake of the onset of AIDS, but in actual fact traces a complex parable, setting out from the ‘60s stretching right up to the end of the ‘80s. America and New York in particular provide the backdrop to these stories, interweaving with the culpable shortcomings of a political class (the Reagan administration), which refuses to recognise those civil rights that the seriousness of the healthcare emergency linked to the new epidemic dramatically brings to light.

The works of Hujar and Smith will be displayed on the two levels of Palazzo Santa Margherita (one artist on each floor) to form a visual narrative which while in the case of Hujar is told exclusively through the use of his extraordinary black & white photos (including the series on the catacombs of Palermo and his intense portraits of David Wojnarowicz), in Smith’s case moves more towards film and his broad-based anthology of images presented in the form of a slide-show, although also here there is a selection of his black & white images.

The 240 or so works by the younger artist, Mark Morrisroe, will instead be on show at the Palazzina dei Giardini.

The work of the three artists will accompany the spectator along a display itinerary made up of complementary opposites: courtly art and popular art, the banal and the elegiac, the trashy and the refined, life and death. In brief, the itinerary suggests a journey through the genders (male, female and transgender) as well as sexual orientations (heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality) and how they are recounted through art-house films, B-movies, pornography, not to mention through both underground and traditional culture. Furthermore, the issue of AIDS heavily characterises the lives and works of these three artists: their vibrant, tragic and often ironic approach belies their most pressing issues, such as their refusal to be ‘normalised’, institutionalised or transformed into something exotic.

Face value aside, the real common denominator which unites Hujar, Morrisroe and Smith is their ability to capture the most fleeting details of personality (their own and that of others). The clear hedonistic and ironic vein that permeates most of their production does not in fact halt the emergence of an explicit declaration of intent, a sort of programmatic manifesto, and even more strongly their search for unconditional love.

The bilingual catalogue (Italian/English) will be published by Silvana Editoriale.

Galleria Civica di Modena
Corso Canalgrande, 103
Modena 41121 Italy
Tel. +39 059 2032911
Tel. +39 059 2032940
Fax +39 059 2032932
www.galleriacivicadimodena.it

Opening hours
From Wednesdays to Fridays 10.30 am – 1 pm; 3 pm – 6 pm
Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays: 10.30 am – 7 pm
Free admission