Queer Spaces in Art and Architecture
Queer Spaces in Art and Architecture
If orientation is a matter of how we reside in space, then sexual orientation might also be a matter of residence, of how we inhabit spaces, and who or what we inhabit spaces with. (Sara Ahmed, 2006)
Feminist and queer modernist approaches have contributed to questioning the patriarchal and heteronormative norms of architecture as well as the dichotomies inherent in the binary nature of spaces (domestic/public, center/periphery). Charlotte Perriand, Lilly Reich and Eileen Gray, first, and Dolores Hayden, Beatriz Colomina, Penny Sparke and Jill Stoner, later, have structured important works on ephemeral architecture regarding the notion of interiority, thus initiating a theoretical deconstruction of these normative boundaries.
Where are we today? If “queer is already present both in architectural historiographies and historical architectures themselves” (Marko Jobst, 2023), what are the architectural, artistic and design solutions that can bring queerness into light? How are 21st-century artists and architects interpreting and using queer architectural experiences to promote new ways of conceiving queerness in private and social spaces? What were the pioneering cases that brought out the first contradictions?
The panel proposes to reconsider past and present cases by exploring visual art and architectural cultures of any historical period to reread and evaluate, through a contemporary perspective, some of the challenges inherent in the topic of queerness. It aims to attract scholars from various disciplines and encourages papers with a transnational and transcultural outlook that reflect on, but are not necessarily limited to themes of: queer spaces, environments, buildings and landscapes through art practices;intersections between queer artists and architects; save space, camp attitude, minor architecture, non-binary space; queer design and furniture; exhibitions challenging the topic; virtual queer spaces – backrooms.
Session Convenor:
Pamela Bianchi, École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris Belleville (ENSAPB)
Speakers:
Marko Jobst, Leeds School of Architecture
Queer Ekphrasis: Belgrade Baroque
This paper explores the possible meanings and uses of queer ekphrasis in the context of 18th century representations of Belgrade, Serbia. In doing so, it builds on the work I have done with regard to the almost mythical Belgrade Baroque, which was established and then largely demolished in the period 1717-1739. It is a subject I have written about in ‘Queering Architectural History: Anomalous histories and historiographies of the Baroque’ (Queering Architecture: Methods, Practices, Spaces, Pedagogies, Jobst and Stead, eds., Bloomsbury 2023) and ‘Queering Great War Island’ (Instituting Worlds: Architecture and Islands, Gabrielsson and Jobst, eds., Routledge 2024). I will briefly reflect on these two texts as the basis of this paper.
In approaching ekphrasis, I will follow Brian Glavey’s exploration of the practice in The Wallflower Avant-garde: Modernism, Sexuality, and Queer Ekphrasis, in order to consider how employing ekphrasis when approaching visual historical documentation can aid in constructing a queer archive where none can otherwise be found. By looking at images used to describe the Habsburg takeover of Belgrade from the Ottomans – all of which are inextricable from violent acts of warfare, and indicative as such of perpetual cycles of urban destruction and construction – and recasting them in writing, I aim to offer a model for engaging queerly with historical records, as well as the art practices that are integral to them.
Evan Pavka, Toronto Metropolitan University (Canada)
‘The Boys’: Image, Architecture and Queer Life in Early Twentieth Century Toronto
The Boys” — Charles Ashley and James B. Crippen — were same-sex partners in business and life who played a significant role in the cultural milieu of Toronto, Canada in the first decades of the twentieth century. Well-known during their lifetimes, both men remain largely marginalized and little discussed today, particularly regarding their professional and personal allegiances with architecture. Highly sought-after portrait photographers, they strategically leveraged their unconventional domestic environment and workplace to negotiate the potential threats to their public, non-normative lives from the hostilities of the then largely protestant metropolis and its corresponding conservative social world. At 110 Inglewood Drive, Ashley and Crippen commissioned a radical and austere residence by A.E. LePage, eschewing many conventions of its time by embracing particular formal characteristics actively criticized by the leadership of the region’s architectural community. This semi-rural site at the edge of Toronto was contrasted by their public-facing studio built along the bustling commercial avenue Bloor Street, a place of simultaneous production and consumption of personal and architectural images. This presentation explores domestic architecture and the artist studio as queer sites of spatial agency. Alongside their expanded circle of bohemian friends, Ashley and Crippen’s insurgent residence and studio became integral nodes in a subcultural archipelago, masking and mediating non-heterosexual life while remaining highly visible and public. The formal and conceptual extremity of each space is read alongside the specific medium of photography and their ongoing inhabitation today to reveal the manifold ways in which non-heterosexual lives and spaces existed within the city.
Bernard Wnuk, University of Warsaw
Towards a Minor Queer Architecture: Lessons from Biblioteka Azyl in Lublin
This paper will explore the case of Biblioteka Azyl in Lublin, Poland’s first queer library, as a significant example of queer spatial practices in a conservative socio-political context. Located in Eastern Poland, in a former so-called “LGBT-free zone,” Azyl stands as a resilient and transformative “minor architecture” (Stoner, 2012), creating a safe space for LGBTQ+ youth amidst hostility. Drawing on Jill Stoner’s Toward a Minor Architecture, I argue that Azyl exemplifies how small, community-driven spaces can challenge dominant, exclusionary norms through grassroots initiatives, art practices, and community engagement. Queer spaces in Poland face unique challenges due to conservative legislation and societal pressures, yet Azyl has carved out a physical and symbolic refuge, where young people can study, socialize, and express their queer identities without fear. This presentation will consider how Azyl’s design and usage echo feminist and queer reimaginings of space, as articulated by theorists like Sara Ahmed and Beatriz Colomina, by offering a non-normative, inclusive environment that contrasts with the queer communities of major cities like Warsaw. Additionally, the contributions of queer art beyond major urban centers remain largely overlooked. Azyl’s book collection, encompassing both Polish and English-language texts, as well as its grassroots organization, reinforce a sense of belonging and identity for queer youth. Through an analysis of its spatial dynamics, location, and cultural impact, this paper aims to shed light on how minor architecture and local art traditions – such as Lublin’s rich history of performance art – are mobilized to foster resilience and solidarity within marginalized communities.
Liang-Kai Yu, Maastricht University
Dungeon at Documenta: Party Office’s Anarchist Architecture and Radical Intimacies
This paper explores the practice of anarchist space and radical intimacies within Party Office, a Delhi-based trans-feminist platform led by artist Vidisha-Fadescha, through its installation at Documenta 15 (2022) in Kassel, Germany. Specifically, it focuses on how BDSM spaces function as sites of queer resistance and healing. Drawing on trans historian Susan Stryker’s (2008) notion of the dungeon as a “generative space” for personal and communal transformation, the research examines how Party Office curates an intimate, kink-infused environment where queer, transgender, and non-binary bodies of color resist heteronormative, colonial, and capitalist structures. The installation’s aesthetics—featuring leather, PVC, and BDSM objects—transform public spaces into sites of embodied resistance, providing refuge from societal traumas. By integrating queer and trans studies, exhibition analysis, and spatial politics, the study further argues that dungeon intimacies serve as a form of resistance. These intimacies align with Jack Halberstam’s (2018) concept of “anarchitecture”—an anarchist rejection of architectural mastery and urban planning through collapse and ruins. Party Office’s approach challenges spatial norms, redefining the dungeon as a playground for intimacy, vulnerability, and subversion, fostering a radical model of queer collectivity. This space illustrates how contemporary trans and non-binary artists of color resist cis-white dominance in art spaces, blending radical intimacies with political activism, particularly around anti-caste and Pro-BDS/M movements. This alliance between queerness and anarchy showcases the pioneering role of dungeon spaces in expanding the boundaries of queer architecture.
Pedro Merchán Mateos, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Cruising the museum: queer kinship and the reimagining of institutional space in Spanish Contemporary Art
Drawing from Betsky’s (1997) concept of queer space as an ephemeral, precarious, desire-based counterconstruction that dissolves traditional and heteronormative spatial notions, this paper explores case studies in Spanish contemporary art where artists, curators, and activists blur traditional separations between public/private and visible/invisible realms. These queer spatial poetics reveal a spectrum of practices—from Pepe Espaliú’s performances to the installations of Cabello/Carceller and Nucbeade, and the Anarchivo Sida (AIDS Anarchive) curatorial projects—that resist normative structures by reimagining space aesthetically and politically.
Focusing on how LGBTQIA+ artists and curators in Spain have navigated public and institutional spaces since the 1990s, this research highlights how exhibition-making practices engage with themes of desire and dissenting identities, challenging representational politics that commodify queer bodies within the “white cube.” Embracing queer codes—such as wandering in cruising as a poetic of mutual recognition—these practices transform public spaces into sites for traditionally private expressions, fostering queer kinships among artists, publics and LGBTQIA+ memories. Influenced by squatting movements and queer activism, these works demonstrate that queer spaces emerge not only in reclaimed physical locales but also within the “invisible networks” of relationships and intimacies these artists construct (Betsky, 1997). Ultimately, this study positions queer space as a dynamic, transient site—one that appears and disappears, destabilizes binaries, and reimagines boundaries between public and private realms to ask if museums can be —and how— a place for queerness.
die Blaue Distanz (Adam Erdmann & Franzi Goralski), artists
Filter all entries related to joy: Introducing the “Open Glossary for Queer (immaterial) Architectures”
This paper explores the intersection of queer spatiality, archiving, and collective memory through the lens of the “Open Glossary for Queer (immaterial) Architectures” (OGfQ(i)A) developed by the artist due „die Blaue Distanz“, Adam Erdmann and Franzi Goralski. The project exemplifies how queer spaces—both material and immaterial—can be documented and preserved through methodologies rooted in storytelling, relational practices, and archival experimentation. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in cities such as Los Angeles, Berlin, Tbilisi, and Amsterdam, OGfQ(i)A reimagines spatial documentation by integrating personal narratives, memory fragments, and embodied experiences. Queer spaces are a vital sites for political, social, and affective alliance-building, emphasizing their enduring role in the construction of LGBTQAI+ communities and the deconstruction of dominant spatial paradigms. Rather than serving solely as physical gathering places, queer spaces emerge as dynamic agents in what José Esteban Muñoz calls “worldmaking,” actively transforming dominant sociopolitical realities and questioning established ideas of historiography and spatial production. The OGfQ(i)A project draws on queer, feminist theories to position queer spaces as essential sites for cultivating low-hierarchy, accessible environments that challenge normative power dynamics.
By highlighting the project’s relational and speculative elements, this paper explores its contribution to transformative politics of place-making, offering insights into the preservation of queer histories and the potential for reimagined environments with artistic methods that foreground accessibility, collectivity, and resistance.