Queer? LGBT narratives in Portuguese museums

Queer?
LGBT Narratives in Portuguese Museums
with Susana Gomes da Silva and Diana Lopes Pereira, Aida Rechena and Teresa Veiga Furtado
8 May, Wednesday,  6 – 9 p.m.
Lisbon, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum

Museums are multiple readings and multiple voices, collections offer rich and varied territories of interpretation, objects are powerful tools for the construction (and validation) of narratives, identities, representations.

At our 2018 conference, “Ehat about this heritage? The LGBTQI + presence in the European Year of Cultural Heritage “, we became aware of the little that we know about these matters, both in relation to the past and the present. At the time, we promised that we would organise a meeting in order to know more about the work of two Portuguese museums: the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, which deals with LGBT heritage in the visit “Queer Narratives in the Gulbenkian Collection”; and the Chiado Museum, which in 2017 developed the project “Gender in Art”. Both these works were awarded the ILGA Portugal award.

The decision to approach queer heritage in the Gulbenkian Museum collection was based on a strong desire to introduce new readings and interpretation territories into a collection which apparently offered little in this field. It started from a conviction that the objects speak about who we are and how we see ourselves, and that it is important to find the untold stories behind the usual discourses. The museum set itself the challenge of finding these paths of invisibility, silence and contestation in a heritage that seemed to have no relation to the theme.

The project “Gender in Art: Body, Sexuality, Identity, Resistance” also took LGBTQI+ issues at a centennial museum, the Chiado Museum. The curators will share their reflection on the process of building the project, on the theoretical aspects (museology and art history) and the social and artistic implications in the museum field and in the management of museums.

WITH THE SUPPORT OF

 

 

BIONOTES

Aida Rechena PhD in Museology from the Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias with the thesis “Sociomuseology and Gender. Images of Women in Exhibitions of Portuguese Museums” (2011), Master in Museology  – Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias (2003), specialising in Archaeology (Autonomous University of Lisbon, 1993) and a degree in History (University of Lisbon, Faculty of Arts. The main line of her research is Sociomuseology, Gender Museology and Inclusive Communication in Museums. She has extensive experience in curating exhibitions, the development of museological and museographic programmes, the management of museum collections. She is currently a Museologist at the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage.

Diana Lopes Pereira (coming soon)

Susana Gomes da Silva: Degree in History from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at the New University of Lisbon in 1994, she studied education in museums in 2000 with a postgraduate degree in Museology and Education from the University of Barcelona (Spain, 2000). A specialisation in education and communication in Museums by the University of Leicester (England – 2004). Since 2001, she has been developing professional activities in the area of ​​education in museums. She is the author of several publications of the specialty and invited teacher in many institutions at national and international level. From July 2002 to January 2017, she directed the educational service of the Modern Art Centre of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon). She is currently the Education Officer of the Gulbenkian Museum.

Teresa Veiga Furtado is a video artist. Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Arts and Design of the School of Arts and member of the Centre for History of Art and Artistic Research at the University of Évora. Collaborating member of the Interdisciplinary Center of Social Sciences of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the New University of Lisbon.