In 1997, during a symposium at Centre Pompidou, Leo Bersani presented a prescient critique of the assimilative tendencies that made ‘gays melt into the very culture they like to think of themselves as undermining.’ Mired in micropolitics, for Bersani, queer activism had relinquished the radical task of reconfiguring the horizon of the possible. Later published as ‘Gay Betrayals’, Bersani’s intervention champions a truly disruptive vision of homosexuality, one that betrays the relational, identitarian and communitarian foundations of bourgeois heterosexual respectability through ‘antimonogamous promiscuity’. Building on extensive artistic research into the politics of queer spaces and culture some 20 years later, artist duo Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings revisit Bersani’s polemic with a response in three acts. Through a kaleidoscopic array of drawings, preparatory sketches and egg tempera paintings, a narrative of everyday (homo)sociality comes into view. A series of statuesque figures are caught as they feel the outlines of existing power structures, try out new strategies of inclusivity and, ultimately, wrestle with the blurred lineaments of identity and community.

Produced on the occasion of Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings’ exhibition at the Tate Britain, London 24 September 2022–7 May 2023 as part of the Art Now series.

Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings use the traditional medium of fresco painting to depict street scenes showing groups of people portraying various power dynamics, class and social relations and positions of authority. Their collaborative work is linked to their ongoing research and exploration into the relationship between public space, architecture, state infrastructure, gender and sexual identity, asking viewers to question what public space looks like.

“…Almost anyone could be an artist
They could put the art on the wall
All you got to do is know someone
With a wall, that’s all…”

Taking it’s clue from Escape-ism song Almost No One (Can Have My Love) this new publication adapts the catalogue format in order to publish a series of works which are to be hung on the wall.

R,C appeared in conjunction with the exhibition RHYTHM, CITIZEN by Maria Toumazou. It is the third in a series of small volumes of correspondence, responses, and conversations, which accompanies the exhibition program of Grazer Kunstverein. R,C is a visual and textual passage through living and making in the Nicosian landscape. It combines artist statement, photography, and rap. R,C summons three voices: On The Solitary Crossing Of Impassable Passages, a statement by Koula Savvidou, written on the occasion of her eponymous exhibition at Diaspro Art Center, Nicosia, in 1995; EXHAUST, a selection of lyrics written by ‘Tasos Lamnisos / x.ypno for EE&ET (2021), a 10-track album by steliosilchuk & x.ypno; and a selection of 26 photographs taken by Maria Toumazou between 2021 and 2022.

Editor: Tom Engels. Conceptual Development: Maria Toumazou, Tom Engels, Julie Peeters. Translation: EXHAUST: Tasos Lamnisos, Maria Toumazou/ On The Solitary Crossing of Impassable Passages: Maria Toumazou, Koula Savvidou, Tom Engels. Graphic Design: Julie Peters.

Rosemarie Trockel is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential conceptual artists in Germany. Her sculptures, collages, ceramics, knitted works, drawings and photographs are noted for their subtle social critique and range of subversive, aesthetic strategies—including the reinterpretation of “feminine” techniques, the ironic shifting of cultural codes, a delight in paradox, and a refusal to conform to the commercial and institutional ideologies of the art system.

In his sculptures, land works, and installations, Walter De Maria (1935–2013) explored the relationship between the relative and the absolute, using basic geometric components to produce sublime repetitions. By arranging forms according to mathematical sequences, he worked at the intersections of Minimalism, conceptual art, and land art—drawing attention to the limits of gallery spaces, prioritising bodily awareness, and locating the content of an artwork in the viewer.