»Once they realize that we are indeed their children, that we are indeed everywhere, every myth, every lie, every innuendo will be destroyed once and all.«
Harvey Milk, 1978
It was last year in a documentary series, where we found great footage of the proud lgbtqia+ people that walked before us – marching for themselves just as much as they were marching for us. We saw two people who were holding a sign that said everything. Everything we needed at this moment and everything everyone should ever know. WE ARE EVERYWHERE.
Just this February, we had the first ever gay kiss sneaked into the broadcast of a Singaporean news channel, while it is still officially forbidden to report about lgbtqia+ people – as is in many more regions of this world we live in. And we live. We live everywhere and we are diverse as can be. We just wished society wouldn’t get scared of us but get excited. Infinite potential if we could live our authentic lives to the fullest.
While we know today that it is not every queer person’s responsibility to be openly queer in every context they live in – safety first – coming out is still one of the most powerful statements that any lgbtqia+ person can make because it takes away the shame and the fears we were taught.
Being out or keeping it confidential, we are here. Seen or overlooked. We are gay grandparents, nonbinary doctors, lesbian students, asexual colleagues, queer friends, you name it. Because WE ARE EVERYWHERE. Indeed Harvey, everywhere. E-VE-RY-WHERE. Oh, and also we are very smart and sexy. Except if you wish not to be, then you aren’t of course. Because you are everything – everywhere.
Professional and amateur photographers from all over the world were invited in March to submit their work on the topic »We Are Everywhere« as a central theme. Our aim is to open the eye to the entire spectrum of queerness, and in particular to queerness that is lived in non-European societies. In this year’s selection, originality of content, formal consistency, collaborative approaches and the inner attitude of the photographers are decisive.
Get more information and the story behind each project on the following pages. Explore the range of warm personal stories, critical approches, portraits, political statements and abstract processing.
We Are Everywhere exhibitions:
May 6th – May 31st: Karlstorbahnhof, poster exhibition in the streets of Heidelberg
May 7th – June 30th: Haus am Wehrsteg with midissage on May 22nd, 3pm.
May 23rd – June 3rd: Cityhall Heidelberg
Im letzten Jahr stießen wir in einer Dokuserie auf großartige Aufnahmen von stolzen LGBTQIA+ Menschen, die vor Jahren bereits vor uns marschierten – sie marschierten für sich selbst, genauso wie sie für uns marschierten. Wir sahen dort zwei Menschen, die ein Schild in der Hand hielten, auf dem alles stand. Alles, was wir in diesem Moment brauchten, und alles, was wir wissen sollten: WIR SIND ÜBERALL.
Erst dieses Jahr im Februar wurde der erste schwule Kuss heimlich in die Live-Sendung eines singapurischen Nachrichtensenders geschnitten, obwohl es offiziell immer noch verboten ist über queere Menschen zu berichten – wie auch in vielen anderen Regionen dieser Welt in der wir leben. Und wir leben. Ja – wir leben überall und wir sind so vielfältig wie man es sich kaum vorstellen vermag. Wir wünschten uns nur, die Gesellschaft hätte keine Ängste, sondern wäre davon begeistert. Unendliches Potenzial, wenn wir nur unser Leben authentisch in vollen Zügen leben könnten.
Obwohl es nicht die Aufgabe einer queeren Person ist, sich in jedem Lebensbereich, offen queer zu verhalten (Sicherheit geht vor), ist das Coming-Out doch immer noch eine der stärksten Aussagen, die eine LGBTIQ+ Person machen kann, da es uns die Scham und die Ängste nimmt, die uns beigebracht wurden. Ob wir uns outen oder es geheim halten, wir sind hier. Gesehen oder übersehen. Wir sind schwule Großeltern, nicht-binäre Ärzt*innen, lesbische Student*innen, asexuelle Kolleg*innen, queere Freund*innen, was auch immer. Denn WIR SIND ÜBERALL.
Im März diesen Jahres waren wieder Profi- und Amateurfotograf*innen aus der ganzen Welt aufgerufen, ihre Arbeiten zum Thema »We Are Everywhere« einzureichen. Ziel dabei ist, den Blick auf ein breites Spektrum von Queerness zu öffnen, besonders auch auf Queerness, die in außereuropäischen Gesellschaften gelebt wird.
Seit dem 6. Mai zeigt die Ausstellung »We Are Everywhere« die Arbeiten der elf Gewinner*innen aus mehr als 130 Einreichungen aus aller Welt. Die ausgezeichneten Projekte sind für mehrere Wochen im Kulturhaus Karlstorbahnhof, im Haus am Wehrsteg, im Rathaus und im öffentlichen Raum der Stadt Heidelberg, sowie in einer digitalen Dauerausstellung hier auf der Festival Webseite zu sehen.
Weitere Informationen und die Geschichten hinter den Projekten, finden sich auf den folgenden Seiten. Entdeckt mit uns warmherzige, persönliche Geschichten, kritische Ansätze, Porträts, politische Statements, abstrakte, wie humorvolle Konzepte.
»Together« is an evolving series of portraits. Guillets approach is both introspective and contemplative. With her work, the artist questions and criticizes the »sentimental norm«: traditional definitions of love relationships.
In this series of portraits, Camila Falcão researches gender and sexuality in an anti-patriarchal and collaborative approach. Her protagonists are members of a young non-binary community in Brazil. These Portraits are taken in home environments with natural light and always on eye level with both the protagnists and the audience. Camila Falcão shows a diverse range of queer people and bodies.
Joey Solomon’s influences are both academic and medical. As an openly gay man with mental disorders who has survived an internal pelvic tumor, his images advocate for invisible, internal highs and lows.
Meghan Marin describes her work Thinking of U (2020-present) as a „testament to the love and strength my queer friends give to me and our chosen families.“ Her portraits are simple and intimate, their authenticity and warmth are fueled by a collaborative approach.
In Audiovisual Cuir, Mia Vasquez documents the lives and experiences of LGBTQ+ people as well as her own state of being. She shows us „what it means to exist and live in the social climate of Dominican Republic: Filled with religious and traditional views but slowly seeing a destabilization of the cis-heteronormative binary.
The term »rose-tinted glasses« is often used to describe the perspective of people who see elements of the past as better and superior. Queer goggles are a whole different kind of »rose-tinted glasses.«
Sarah Mei Herman started this long-term project in 2014 during an artist residency on the Chinese coastal city island of Xiamen. Rather than focusing on cultural differences, Sarah Mei Herman explores aspects that are universally recognizable: the importance of friendship and love.
In a reduced aesthetic influenced by the new German photography, Sabrina Weniger lets us participate in a phase of her protagonist’s life. Through the collaborative approach, we feel Chieh’s calm determination to align the outer body with the inner body.
In her long term documentation, Shirin Bhandari makes friends with the Golden Gays, a group of elderly drag performers in Manila. Her intimate snapshot portraits and dressing room scenes initiate a visual and emotional understanding for the lives, relationships and community of her protagonists.
Simon Emond set out to meet queer communities living in remote areas far away from large cities. His grainy, blurred and almost abstract images illustrate a personal journey that leads in different directions at the same time: Outwards, inwards, into the dark and towards the light, up to the sky and down to earth.
Ziyu Wang questions the societal pressure on men to perform their masculinity. He skillfully accomplishes this through the staged visualization of expectations that his father has of him. In „Go get´em, boy!“ the audience takes on the role of the elders of the family to examine the images of manhood Ziyu Wang has created for his father.
