In New York, the Museum of Sex presents Canon (Virgenes de la Puerta, Padre Patria, Anda, Los Chicos), a multi-part series of photographs and sculptures by Juan Jose Barboza-Gubo & Andrew Mroczek. The exhibition is both a celebration of the Peruvian LGBTQ community and a call to action against the relentless violence it faces in a society where bearing witness to a public beating of a transgender woman, and the subsequent inaction of bystanders, is an all too frequent occurrence. In an effort to respond, Peruvian artist Barboza-Gubo and American artist Mroczek began to work together in 2013 to shine a light on these social atrocities, while at the same time celebrating the resilience, power, and beauty of their subjects.
The series began with Virgenes de la Puerta (Virgins of the Door), a photography series that reimagines transgender women as historical and religious icons inspired by Spanish colonial painting and 19th-century vernacular photography, such as the iconic religious imagery of Santa Rosa de Lima or the Tapada Limeña. The project plays off the religious “canon” law that all too often targets and excludes LGBTQ voices, as well as the often-genuine spiritual beliefs of LGBTQ Peruvians who identify with their country’s rich religious heritage. Barboza-Gubo and Mroczek then turned to Los Chicos (The Boys), documenting an emerging community of openly gay men in Peru and the role they are playing in the country’s cultural fabric. Finally, a third photo series, Padre Patria (Fatherland), was born from a desire to document the erasure of those lives. Drawing from over four years of research and collaborative study with their subjects, the artists aim to bring this body of work to a wider global audience. “We need to begin to examine just how the ‘fatherland’ has been destroying our ‘mother-land.’ The patriarchy needs to be held accountable for the often brutal reality that LGBTQ people live and die in, here in Peru and around the world,” says Barboza-Gubo.
The exhibition at Museum of Sex offers an immersive experience to match the intimate and vibrant portraits. Challenging the idea of what is normal, the haunting images reveal the Peruvian LGBTQ community’s ongoing struggle for survival against all odds, despite being denied such basic human rights as protection from violence, education and healthcare. “Some of the images in the series feel confrontational and that was certainly intentional…It creates an equal playing field between the viewer and the work…navigating a line between confrontation and persecution,” Mroczek states.
Canon
October 20, 2017 until January 15, 2018.
Museum of Sex
233 Fifth Avenue (at 27th Street)
New York, NY 10016
USA
http://www.museumofsex.com/
