Katarína Slezáková, The Július Koller Society, September 2023

The last important event of the month was the visit of Nora-Swantje Almes, the curator of the upcoming group show that is going to take place over four months in the Spring of 2024. 

The exhibition with the working title Hungry is my favorite word invites us to fantasize about the past, future and present. How can we relate to the obscured past in which queer existence has been neglected? Weaving together references of historical role models, ephemeral gestures, more recent pop-cultural moments and contemporary visual culture, the exhibition creates an emotional landscape that constantly evolves. There is not one truth, nor one answer and there is no last word” (as described by Nora-Swantje Almes in an email to me).

The exhibition is our common endeavor (the artists, curator, and the JKS) to open up the gallery space as much as possible to the broader community. Nora has made time to spend two and a half days together with us in Bratislava. The program was packed as the visit included also introduction and work with the archive and studio visits with local young artists that thematize queerness in their work. Besides opening up to a broader artist community, we also aim to cooperate with queer activist spaces, collectives and individual people. Three community sessions are to take place. Together with Nora we had a session in which we designed a draft of the sessions and selected entities for cooperation. We hope to create the sessions in cooperation with the community to serve the current needs. However, it will be a challenge to reconcile the community sessions with the activities planned in the IoK project and with the proposal that we prepare for a local art funding scheme.