Stories leave their traces not only in space, but also in time. However, tracking queerness in time might be a striving enterprise when we are not dealing with a unique and linear perspective on time and space. There are many histories, herstories, theirstories and ourstories, bridges called back which are forgotten, acts of resistance, misfits with gender, sexuality, race, class, ethnicity boxes that try to commodify otherness in a very conforming way. We are looking for lines of transformation through. This is also related to an enterprise of decolonizing white, middle class perspectives on queerness, and paves the way for disruptive, conflicting, struggling stories: stories of subjugated memories, border controls, realities that exist beyond mainstream values and norms.

The concept of the queer questions everything – heteronormativity, gender images, social structures, and indeed power relations as well. In this sense, the artists in the nGbK also pose questions. It is also about ‘queer temporality’: What was perhaps once queer?  What could be queer? […] Queerness without history – unimaginable. And socially, we seem to be in a loop of repetition, back in a time of censorship. That’s why the exhibition also devotes a lot of space to exploring subtle codes and explicit pornography.
taz / A Powerful Uproar – QUEER ART The exhibition “What is queer today is not queer tomorrow” at the Neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst in Kreuzberg revolves around identity conflicts / 20.06.2014

The exhibition What is Queer Today is Not Queer Tomorrow explores the theme of queer temporality. The project responds to debates within queer milieus (lesbian, gay, trans*, intersex-, etc.) and to the increasing integration of queer ways of life into the political mainstream.

The nGbK becomes an explicit venue of experience, confrontation, reflection, lingering, exchange and departure.

What is ‘queer?’ What was perhaps once queer – and what has been omitted from this framework? What could be queer? The exhibition raises questions about community, identity, visibility and sex; it opens up postcolonial perspectives and tales of lesbian-gay-trans*-bi-inter-queer stories, hair, bodies, porn and capitalism. During the eight-week exhibition, artists will intervene in the white cube of the nGbK. Selected works will enter the space over time or be developed in an ongoing process that visitors can accompany.

What is Queer Today is Not Queer Tomorrow has been conceived and organised by the (heidy) collective, an nGbK project group, which consists of persons working with performance, theory, video, text, and images – some are people of color, some are identified as cis- or trans-, some are gay or lesbian, some are not.

Reviews

For this (exhibition), a team of ten curators has put together a diverse, well-considered selection of artists from around the world, featuring painting, drawing, installation, video, and performances that will take place throughout the duration of the exhibition in the spaces of the Kreuzberg Kunstverein (Kreuzberg Art Association nGbK). Here, ‘queer’ means more than just a mere description of a gay, lesbian, trans, and intersex community—it’s about breaking down boundaries.
Tagesspiegel / Exhibition in Berlin-Kreuzberg: Today Queer, Tomorrow Queer? / 23.06.2014