Screening and Q&A: Zanele Muholi Events — 29 Jul 2016 Screening of Zanele Muholi’s documentary Difficult Love (2010) on the occasion of Amsterdam Gay Pride/ EuroPride 2016, followed by a Q&A with the artist. The film will be screened continuously during the weekend of July 30 – 31. In Difficult Love (2010) Zanele Muholi narrates the lives and challenges of South African queer and lesbian women. The artist, a self-proclaimed ‘visual activist’, is known for representing black lesbian identity through large series of photographic portraits in black and white. With her work Muholi aims ‘to re-write a black queer and trans visual history of South Africa for the world to know of our resistance and existence at the height of hate crimes in SA and beyond.’ South Africa legalized same-sex marriage in 2006 and is on the forerun of acknowledging LGBTQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex) rights. Yet sexual minorities are too often victims of discrimination, corrective rape and brutal killings. Muholi takes up the responsibility of documenting the struggles of the lesbian and queer community in her country. In the documentary Difficult Love, she combines her photographs with the stories of individuals, couples, activists and victims, as well as homophobes. In doing so, Muholi’s visual documentation becomes a means to create visibility for their lives and to challenge the prevalence of homophobia and transphobia. More about the artist Zanele Muholi (1972, SA) is a visual artist and activist. She was a co-founder of the Forum for Empowerment of Women (FEW) and founded the forum for queer and visual (activist) media Inkanyiso. In 2013 she received the Prins Claus Award and in 2016 she was awarded with the ICP Award for Documentary and Photojournalism. Muholi’s Faces and Phases series has been exhibited at the 29th São Paulo Biennale (2010), Documenta 13 (2012) and the South African Pavilion of the 55th Venice Biennale (2013). Solo exhibitions include the Schwules Museum in Berlin (2014), the Brooklyn Museum in New York (2015) and the Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool (2015), among others. Her work has also been featured in group exhibitions at various institutions, such as the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art in New York (2014) and the Guggenheim Bilbao (2015). Muholi’s work is part of the exhibition What We Have Overlooked, currently on show at Framer Framed in Amsterdam (June 30 – August 21, 2016). In 2016 the Stedelijk acquired four portraits from Muholi’s Somnyama Ngonyama series for its collection.

• Trefwoorden
  fotografie, film, monografie, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam [Activiteiten/Lezingen/Muziekuitvoeringen], beeld- en/of geluidsdrager
• Geografisch trefwoord
  Zuid-Afrika (ZA)
• Persoonstrefwoord
  Zanele Muholi