The exhibition titled “nono, bad timing!”, presented in Nicosia by the Goethe-Institut, the French Institute, Queer Wave, and NiMAC, focuses on processes of archiving queer time and space.
The project gathers material from the “Mémoire des Sexualités” archive based in Marseille and the “Schwules Museum” in Berlin.
For the month of October, “nono, bad timing!” transforms into a workshop for developing new proposals by cultural producers based in Cyprus. The touring exhibition “Queer as German Folk” is presented in full at the Goethe-Institut in Nicosia as part of the same project.
Curated by Evagoras Vanezis and coordinated by Leontios Toumpouris, “nono, bad timing!” starts from the premise that temporal, spatial, and sexual dissonances concerning the “universality” of existence are interconnected.
With a non-linear approach, the project destabilises well-established rhythms and rhetoric to propose new possibilities for what archiving means in this context: how can silenced histories be recorded, and what can these processes empower?
The “Mémoire des Sexualités” association has accumulated a vast archive concerning the history of homosexuality in French and international social life, tracking its history from 1978 (the founding of the Groupe de Libération Homosexuelle de Marseille) to 2015.
The photographic material presented here focuses on the activities of the 1979 Homosexuality Summer Universities.
The material from “Queer as German Folk” highlights spaces of empowerment networks. Starting from the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, it offers an overview of the history of queer movements from the 1960s in the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, and reunified Germany. Particular emphasis is placed on the multifaceted relationships with American movements.
Adopting the role of guest archivists, Cyprus-based cultural producers explore the needs and joys of a library/reading room (Loizos Olympios), the use of photography as a tool for investigating identity and constructing narratives (Logan Bellew), the collection of stories and the display of personal archives in public spaces (Diomedes Koufteros), institutional critique and the creation of archives of emotions (Gabriel Koureas), dramaturgy and performance (Evita Ioannou).
The project’s title is a humorous challenge to the dynamics of power that come into play when we disrupt chrononormativity, a concept coined by theorist Elizabeth Freeman. It includes the expectation that we all follow the same timeline, oriented towards predetermined goals of productivity, and that the same right thing happens at the right time for everyone.
This expectation is not only subjectively felt, as no one feels they manage time exactly right, but also encompasses present conditions, echoes, and consequences of broader sets of strategies, rhetoric, and political actions aimed at choreographing bodies to rhythms and timetables that serve clear (re)productive agendas—whether these are capitalist, nationalist, or familial.
In queer politics of memory and becoming, there is no “bad” or “good” time, but irreducible—and thus timely—efforts to liberate the body from constraints that limit.
“nono, bad timing!” opens on the launch night of the “Queer Wave: Cyprus LGBTQIA+ Film Festival”, the 5th edition of which will take place between 20-29 September in collaboration with NiMAC.
Nicosia, Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, Collaboration: Pierides Foundation – NiMAC (22797400).
Opening: Friday 20 September, 7 p.m. Duration: until 9 November
(Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. Closed 1/10).
