Poetics of Resistance from the Archive in Two Acts

Curated by Raquel Villar-Pérez

Winner of the Peckham 24 open call. 

Peckham 24, Photo London, September 2021.

Poetics of resistance from the archive in two acts proposes a re-reading of the archive as a catalyst that imagines and makes visible plural manifestations of queer masculinity thought the works of the Spanish artists Pablo Lerma and Javier Hirschfeld. 

Archives function as keepers of history, often of a specific time, locality, or community. However, they are by their very nature incomplete. Archives are representative of the personal tastes or public agendas of those in charge of their making, therefore they are shaped not only by what is included but more importantly by what is left out. Both Lerma and Hirschfeld’s work is rooted in their personal experience of being unable to self-identify with the stereotype of a gay man created and perpetuated by heteronormative expectations. As a result, their work sheds light onto different performativities of being queer.