El pasado 11 de enero se publicó el primer número de la revista estadounidense Wilde Magazine
dedicada al arte y la literatura de temática LGBT. A continuación os
dejo con mi presentación para este volumen en el que mi escaparate "An
Imaginary Meeeting" apareció publicado en la categoría de Arte Visual.
My
name is Javipop and I am a visual artist from Barcelona, Spain. I am
currently the visual merchandiser at Antinous, an LGBTQ bookstore
located in downtown Barcelona. Working there has provided me the
opportunity of reflecting --through visual art and literature-- on
different aspects of the LGBTQ community such as identity, sex and
gender, equal-rights and community-building. In this sense, my aim is
to use the public space of the store as an “open window” through
which to explore what it means to be gay in an heterocentric society.
In this regard, I would like to consider three of the window displays
showcased at the bookstore that I find most illustrative of this
topic. The first one is based on the novel by the Spanish writer
Agustín Gómez Arcos, The carnivorous lamb (1975), and
depicts a room divided in half, as a metaphor of the divided identity
faced by gays and lesbians before “coming out.”
The second scheme
is represented by a typewriter tied with ropes over a pillow, an
image that arise from Reinaldo Arenas' autobiography, Before night
falls (1992).
And it reveals the oppression he suffered for being an openly gay
writer under the Cuban regime.
The third visual display
reproduce "an imaginary meeting" with some of the most prominent LGBTQ
writers, in an homage to those who narrated a sense of community in
their works.