Schwules Museum* Berlin – Zanele Muholi Photograph

Press release

Zanele Muholi. Photography

at Schwules Museum* in Berlin
22 March to 9 June 2014
Curators: Birgit Bosold & Wolfgang Theis

The Schwules Museum* in collaboration with Amnesty International present an extensive exhibition of South African artist Zanele Muholi’s photographic works. You and your friends are cordially invited to:

a panel discussion at 6pm and

the opening of the exhibition at 8pm on 21 March 2014.

Discussion:
„Love is a Human Right – Sexualized Violence against Lesbians in South-Africa” – with Zanele Muholi, Sherlock Fortuin (human rights activist) and Selmin Çaliskan (Secretary General of Amnesty International Germany).
Moderation: Ines Pohl (Editor-in-Chief of taz)

Exhibition:
An internationally recognized photographer, filmmaker and activist, Zanele Muholi deals with the experiences of the ‘black’ queer and especially lesbian community in South Africa and other African countries. In a repressive social and political climate which condemns queer ways of living and in which lesbians, gay men and trans* are faced with constant discrimination and persecution, her works represent acts of self-assertion and empowerment.

Her photographs intervene, are themselves deeds, political activism and resistance. She achieves a thematization of violence which does not portray individuals as victims. On the contrary, her photographs depict people who gaze confidently into the camera, make their own decisions and have voices of their own.

The exhibition presents and exclusive selection of Muholi’s body of work. Alongside an assortment of pieces chosen from amongst the artist’s early work (2003-2005), the Schwules Museum exhibits images from the series Beloved (2005-2010), Being (2007) and Faces and Phases (ongoing since 2006), as well as a selection of Muholi’s works on trans*persons and the video works Difficult Love (2010) and @24 (2011-2012).

Zanele Muholi – Activist, photographer and filmmaker

lives and works in Johannesburg, recipient of the LGBTI Art and Culture Award in 2005 and 2009, as well as the Freedom of Expression Award from Index on Censorship in 2013. At the biennial of African photography Les Rencontres de Bamako (Bamako Encounters), Muholi was commended as best female photographer with the Jean-Paul Blachère and Casa Africa Awards. She has exhibited in numerous solo and group shows, including Le Case d’Arte, Milan; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Stevenson, Cape Town; Documenta 13, Kassel; Kunsthalle Wien project space, Vienna; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo. In 2006, Zanele Muholi founded the online project Inkanyiso, “queer activism = queer media”.