Gaps, Leaps, Fractures – Queer Temporalities.

Queer experiences of time deviate from normative and linear rhythms. They are characterized by coming-outs or transitions, have breaks, gaps and leaps. Queer temporalities explore non-linear concepts of time and oppose normative time structures based on reproduction and age appropriateness, among others. The exhibition Gaps, Leaps, Fractures – Queer Temporalities brings together artistic positions that deal with fragmented understandings of time. Using various media, the artists question not only normative concepts of life, but also common notions of productivity and efficiency. The artistic works open up spaces for alternative narratives about queer life and love, explore moments of community and transformation, break with hegemonic historiographies and make voids visible. The past is interwoven with the present and futures are designed beyond chrononormative constraints.

Gaps, Leaps, Fractures – Queer Temporalities.

28.03.2025 to 19.06.2025

Opening: Thu 27.03.2025, 18:00h, QUEER MUSEUM VIENNA

with a curators tour at the opening

and DJ le mireille milieu

Otto Wagner Areal, former “Direktion”, Stiege 2, Hochparterre,
Baumgartner Höhe 1, 1140 Wien

curated by Sylvia Sadzinski

Artists: Ren Loren Britton, Benjamin Busch, Philipp Gufler, Constantin Hartenstein, Laura Nitsch, Dana Lorenz, Lee Stevens

How does time unfold when it is thought of queerly? What stories emerge in the gaps in official narratives? And what happens when the past, present and future flow into each other?

The exhibition Gaps, Leaps, Fractures – Queer Temporalities brings together seven artistic positions that deal with the fluid, fragmented and resistant experience of time in queer contexts.

With works by Ren Loren Britton, Benjamin Busch, Philipp Gufler, Constantin Hartenstein, Dana Lorenz, Laura Nitsch and Lee Stevens, a dialog on the question of a queer consciousness of time and the conditions of queer existence unfolds within the framework of the exhibition.

Queer temporalities question normative structures and explore non-linear, cyclical or alternative concepts of time. A queer understanding of time assumes that the lives of LGBTIQA+ communities do not develop in the same way as the lives of non-queer people and that queer communities experience time differently: Coming-outs can cause fractures in biographies, trans people’s transitions can cause temporal leaps or distortions. At the same time, queer temporalities also refer to (hi)stories that have never been told and make historical gaps visible. They also oppose so-called chrononormative constraints. These constraints determine when and how certain events or developments in life “should” occur. They relate to biographical norms and expectations, for example with regard to career, marriage and reproduction, but also refer to working time regulations/models and ideas of success and productivity.

In the exhibited works, queer temporalities manifest themselves as performative gestures, visual archives or poetic interventions. Using artistic media such as video, installation, VR, photography, drawings, screen printing on textiles, text and their overlappings, the exhibited positions are dedicated to memory practices, transgenerational narratives and utopian models of time. The artists’ works remember, reject or imagine pasts, futures and a plural present. They question the legibility of history by retelling the past from a queer perspective. They work with overwritings, ruptures and appropriations and make visible that queer time does not pass, but moves – in gaps, between moments, in resistant leaps. Through deceleration and slowness, they question the productive logic of capitalist time and create new possibilities for a different awareness of time. The works open up spaces for alternative narratives about queer life and love and explore moments of change and community.

Gaps, Leaps, Fractures – Queer Temporalities invites us to think of time not as a rigid sequence, but as an open process: incomplete, permeable and always in motion. As such, some parts of the exhibition are not fixed and rigid: individual things will change during the duration of the exhibition, works will grow or wither. And in the end, one question remains in focus: How does time feel for you as a queer person?

Entrance free

Many thanks to the supporters of this exhibition:

All our private donors,

and