ZOE exhibition by MAIK GRÄF

The Queer Archive presents ZOE by MAIK GRÄF.

“Zoe” is an ancient Greek term and means life – the simple fact of life that is common to all living beings. According to Plato, “Zoe” is also tied to Fate which can be lived well or badly. However, it is not always in our hands whether our life is peaceful or whether it is suppressed and persecuted because certain aspects are not considered compliant by religious or political authorities.

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Queer interpretations of ancient Greek mythology and society are the focus of the photographic project ZOE by German artist Maik Gräf. A series of photographs taken during the artist’s art residency in Athens in 2021 will be presented at Romantso Gallery.

The exhibition is curated by Konstantinos Menelaou and Maik Gräf and produced by the art platform and gallery The Queer Archive.

The opening is on Thursday 20th April, from 7pm to 11pm, with a DJ set by Clubkid from 8pm to 11pm. The exhibition will be on display from April 21st to 26th, from 5pm to 9pm, and the closing is on Thursday 27th April from 5pm to 11pm. The closing ceremony will also feature a conversation with Maik Gräf from 7pm to 8pm and a DJ set from 8pm to 11pm.

'' The One My Soul Loves'' from Israel opens Nicosia International Festival

Itai Segal’s latest play is based on the terrorist attack at the Bar Noar (LGBT Centre) in August 2009 in Tel Aviv. Ami Rahav (starring also in Netflix’s Unorthodox) stars as Jonathan, the gay son of an everyday loving family. A family, however, with secrets and wounds from the past, anxieties and destructive prejudices. After the savage shooting, Jonathan lies unconscious in hospital, and no one can explain to his mother what her only son was doing in a gay bar. And so begins a family drama at the centre of which is a religious 17-year-old boy, who soon finds himself forced by his family to undergo conversion therapy.

A ten-member cast will bring the harrowing story to life in Nicosia, performing in Hebrew with subtitles in Greek and English. Supported by the Embassy of Israel, the performance will take place for one night only, starting at 8.30pm and lasting for a chilling 90 minutes.

Israel’s performance is one of the many acts that are part of the Nicosia International Festival’s programme this year and throughout November and December numerous music, dance and theatre performances will add colour to the capital.

The One My Soul Loves

Theatrical performance by the HaBima- National Theatre of Israel. Opening act of the 3rd Nicosia International Festival. October 28. Nicosia Municipal Theatre, Nicosia. 8.30pm. In Hebrew with subtitles in Greek and English. www.soldoutticketbox.com

FACES by Seigar

Seigar is a passionate travel, street, social-documentary, conceptual, and pop visual artist based in Tenerife, Spain. His latest project ‘FACES’ explores the different faces we see in people depending on the situations the live.

The artist notes:

This conceptual portrait series was inspired by the lyrics of the song Mercury by Steve Lacy: "You think I'm two-faced, I can name twenty-three / My layers, all these sides". This work represents a metaphor for personality traits conveyed through my longest and still ongoing project My Plastic People. It shows the complexities of human beings.

I think personalities should be valued, and encouraged to blossom. We should embrace our personalities so differences can enrich us all. It is the perfect time in history to let our inner selves and souls speak loud and act freely, not repress ourselves! It is a matter of empowerment.

The content is also connected to my interest in identity, everything that defines us. The aesthetics I've chosen are once more pop, this movement is my main influence to create. Faces deals with the idea that the intricacies of our personalities should not be considered negative, in fact, being genuine is the engine we need today out there, far from the crowd thinking. I see personalities as the possible gates to individual freedoms. Just be real!

REY Stories reimagined by Marco Kowalewski

Visual artist and illustrator Marco Kowalewski combined his favourite moments from our latest editorials and he recreated his own Pride Story.

The Queer Archive Festival #2 is coming back to Athens

After last year’s great success, The Queer Archive Festival is back again in June 2021 (03-06.06.2021), hosting a great celebration of Athens’ rich and vibrant queer culture, with the support of Onassis Stegi for a second consecutive year.

Designed to celebrate the very best of queer arts and culture, The Queer Archive Festival raises the curtain on another rich program of dazzling and provocative multimedia experiences from 3-6 June 2021. Open and accessible to all, our second festival edition remains focused on highlighting talent, encouraging creativity, promoting engaging and progressive contemporary art, which reflects modern queer culture, and ultimately creating a bustling hub that praises diversity and supports social inclusivity.

The festival is once again supported by the Onassis Cultural Foundation that considers culture as a meeting ground for human aspirations and freedom of expression, and supports the LGBTQIA+ community’s self-evident rights through its initiatives. This year, The Queer Archive Festival expands its partnership with the Onassis Foundation, as the Onassis AiR international arts research program offers hospitality and creative conversations for festival guests with the large and international family of artists who are creating through Onassis AiR research journey in the Arts.

CONCOON: Exclusive Dance & Fashion Clip

A REY exclusive fashion project, produced and photographed in Limassol, Cyprus.

Video Production by Savvas Christou

Styling Christos Christou

starring Panos Malactos

Editorial Series Photographed by Savvas Christou

The VANS exhibition in MoMA Museum

This autumn, Vans presents its collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

With a shared passion for individual expression, Vans and the MoMA have joined forces to present a joint collection. The artists presented reflect the diversity of MoMA’s collection, with works by Salvador Dalí, Wassily Kandinsky, Claude Monet, Edvard Munch, Jackson Pollock, Ljubov Popova and Faith Ringgold.


MOFFIE: Powerful Gay Military Drama Masterpiece gets online release

Ever since it premiered at the Venice International Film Festival last year, Moffie has been high on the must-watch lists for 2020.

Oliver Hermanus' powerful gay military drama about a young conscript dealing with the brutal hardships of army life as he grapples with his repressed sexuality has been billed as a thorough and vital dissection of masculinity.

Moffie - named after the South African slang tern for an effeminate man - was originally set for a traditional cinema release before the coronavirus pandemic hit, but the film has thankfully found a way to viewers after being released exclusively on Curzon Home Cinema today (24 April).

Rising star Kai Luke Brummer plays Nicholas Van der Swart, the aforementioned teen conscript who must learn to survive in a psychologically toxic envirvonment as he deals with his growing feelings for a fellow recruit.

Based on an autobiographical novel by South African writer André Carl van der Merwe, Moffie is set in 1981 as South Africa’s white minority government is embroiled in a conflict on the southern Angolan border.


Moffie' is available to stream exclusively now on Curzon Home Cinema.


source: attitude.co.uk

Gilles

Photographer Will Dube experiments with the human body and form in his second portrait series for REY Magazine.

AFTERGLOW is back in London's Waterloo East Theatre

After its sold-out run at Southwark Playhouse, AFTERGLOW transfers to Waterloo East Theatre, London with a brand new cast.

Josh and Alex are in an open married relationship. But after young Darius shares their bed for a night, a new intimate connection begins to form, and all three men must search for one another’s notions of love, intimacy, and commitment. Will their search for passion and intimacy come as easily as their freedom to play around?

Afterglow is a ‘steamy stripped-down look at gay intimacy’ (Huffington Post).

Recommended age 16+. This show contains strong language and nudity.

The play runs for a limited season. For more info and tickets check HERE

source: afterglow.co.uk

RED FLESH

SteFan

Photographer Will Dube

starring Stefan Thomas

A Freedom Movement 2019 - The Exhibition at Leman Locke, London

The lifestyle hotel in Aldgate East, continues to host worth seeing creative exhibitions. Leman Locke is now introducing Michelle Beatty and her new photographic series A Freedom Movement 2019.

Michelle is an Australian born Londoner who has spent a creative lifetime moving seamlessly from the carnival of catwalks and high fashion showrooms, to the subtle backdrops of fine art photography - landscapes, architecture and foreign, far-off lands. For the first time, Michelle has created a body of work that straddles these two parallel career tracks, and the contrasting sides of herself.

Leman Locke is proud to present her newest photographic series, where three talented subjects with backgrounds in ballet, modelling and choreography are captured in the prime of their lives; embodying strength, wisdom, and feminine beauty. The subjects are offset by strong skies, powerful waves and brooding clouds. The photography exhibition runs across all 22 floors of the East London lifestyle hotel, open to the public from 10th May until 31st July.

RSVP to see A Freedom Movement at Leman Locke here >

Follow Michelle Beatty on instagram >

BOYS WITH FEELINGS

HIS HANDS Short Film: a powerful erotic thriller

Directed by Arron Blake and Darius Shu, “HIS HANDS” comes to break your silence and speak to your soul.

Arron Blake also stars in the film and he plays an unnamed younger man who visits the flat of an older man, played by Philip Briseboise; the door to the flat resembles the bars of a prison cell, and Blake touching on the loud buzzer breaks the eerie silence. The action exclusively takes place within this darkened interior, which feels like a strange, disquieting bubble separate to the daytime cityscape outside.

An atmospheric psychological thriller which last as long as your tea break (13 minutes) but brings out themes of acceptance, loneliness and both gender and sexual identity; very important topics for the LGBTQ+ and the humanity in general.

After the thriumph in London in 2018, the film is set to premiere this April in Tribeca Film Festival and we can’t wait to see it screening in Europe.

‘‘HIS HANDS’’ has already won awards at the Oniros Film Awards and been screened at Perth’s International Queer Film Festival and The Lowry ahead of a wider release later this year.