The Serigrafistas Queer collective gathered for the first time in 2007 in Buenos Aires. Its name combines the technique of silkscreen printing with the term queer, which in English refers to gender identities and sexual orientations that break with traditional norms linked to masculinity, femininity, and heterosexuality. Since then, the group has given a new meaning to the term, using the Latin adaptation cuir and the variant cuis, an allusion to the small rodent found in the Argentinian Pampa, which has become a symbol for the artists.
With practices that emerge from public spaces, the Serigrafistas Queer form a cross-cutting network of artists and activists who use silkscreen printing as a crucial tool to create urgent and sensitive messages related to political themes, ranging from social struggles to gender issues. Their work also includes performances, collaborative games, workshops held at demonstrations, and agroecology activities. Each work results from a collective creation process, thus challenging traditional notions of individual authorship.
Serigrafistas Queer: Freedom for Sensibilities features 65 serigraphs, 58 of which are part of the MASP collection, along with other works, including a banner made of T-shirts originally used in demonstrations and a sculpture-furniture piece designed for workshops. The exhibition is divided into eight sections: Acorda, amor! [Wake Up, Love!]; Arquivo Serigrafistas Kuir (ASK) [Serigrafistas Kuir Archive]; Identidade em construção [Identity under Construction]; Corpos desobedientes [Disobedient Bodies]; Aborto legal é vida [Legal Abortion is Life]; O machismo mata! [Machismo Kills!]; Ao Maestrans com carinho [To the MasTRANS with Love]; and Konstrucqueer. During the exhibition, workshops will be held with other collectives: Parquinho Gráfico, Rutras and Coletivo sem Sentimento, Jamac, Artes Sapas, and Fudida Silk. Some of the creations made during these meetings will be displayed in the show will be available for the public to take home.
The exhibition’s subheading refers to a work that suggests freedom for sensibilities as an invitation for subjectivities and affections to be experienced freely and self-determinedly. This gesture claims plurality and desire as creative forces, to allow new forms of existence to thrive through art and collective practices. With their actions of care and reparation, the Serigrafistas Queer offer a powerful model of how art can act in a transformative way.
Serigrafistas Queer: Freedom for Sensibilities is curated by Amanda Carneiro, Curator, MASP.
The show is part of MASP’s year of programming devoted to the Queer Histories, which also includes exhibitions by Mário de Andrade (1893–1945), Catherine Opie, Lia D Castro, Leonilson (1957–1993), Francis Bacon (1909–1992), the Gran Fury collective, the MASP Renner Collection, as well as the large group show Queer Histories, and the Video Room exhibitions by Kang Seung Lee, Massi Mamaní/Bartolina Xixa, Manauara Clandestina, Tourmaline, and Ventura Profana.
