[The Scorpion Snuff Box]
The exhibition starts from the novel “Scorpion” (Der Skorpion), published during the interwar period by the Romanian-German writer Anna Elisabet Weirauch (1887-1970).
Through “The Scorpion Snuff Box – a visual journey into a queer novel,” we envision a journey through the ideas of the novel, in which the author offers a subjective exploration formulated through the surrealist method of objective chance in a “lesbian” universe.
The curatorial journey imagined among the ideas of the novel “Scorpion” (Der Skorpion), published during the interwar period by the Romanian-German writer Anna Elisabet Weirauch (1887–1970), proposes a subjective exploration, at times inspired by the method of objective chance, into a “lesbian” universe from different times and places. This universe is expanded and updated on multiple levels with nuances from our contemporary days. Objective chance was developed by surrealists in the 1920s and 1930s as a creative method based on the seemingly random encounter with an external cause whose emotional impact is so powerful that it generates intense passion. In the case of this exhibition, the passion for “Scorpion,” the first bildungsroman in the history of literature that follows the development of a cisgender lesbian in Berlin in the 1920s, was cultivated through friendship with lesbian activists Suzette Robichon and Traude Bührmann.
by Valentina Iancu
[expo’s themes]
magical nature
sexuality
lesbian family
relationship with mother
pathlogy
the idyllic space
feminine identity
gender and sexuality
lesbian sexuality
feminine masculinity
affection
care
transgender femininity
[artists]
Maria Balea
Traude Bührmann
Mimi Ciora
Diana Matilda Crișan
Ramona Dima & Simona Dumitriu
Georgiana Dobre & Kjersti Vetterstad
Katja Lee Eliad
Yishay Garbasz
Daniela Groza
Tirdad Hashemi & Soufia Erfanian
Mia Imani Harrison
Alexandra Ivanciu
Anastasia Manole
Hortensia Mi Kafchin
Marta Mattioli
Stefania Meșteriuc
Marta Orlando
Ileana Pașcalău
Elvisey Pisică
Iulia Pordea
Orka
Clémentine Roy
Sophie Utikal
[visit the exhibition in digital format]
We wanted to make more than just an exhibition out of Tabachera cu Scorpion. We wanted it to be a hub over the weeks it was open, where people interested in lesbian culture and art could get to know artists/activists through their art and discussions with Suzette Robichon and Traude Bührmann, and through the screening of the film Orlando My Political Biography, a movie that would raise them questions.
The digital version of the exhibition is how we want to continue bringing lesbian culture and art into the awareness of as many people as possible
The project is part of the National Cultural Program “Timișoara – European Capital of Culture in 2023” and is funded and organized in partnership with the Timișoara City through the Project Center.