Decriminalizing History

The decriminalization of history is a perversion of the past — perversion in the original sense of the Latin pervertere: “to overthrow.” This overthrowing or transformation facilitates an encounter with the queerness of spaces, people and objects hidden by the Grand Narratives of normativity. These normative narratives position human beings for maximum productivity — producing descendants in their line of hetero/cis material and social/capital production. The story of the straight, nuclear family annihilates queer, expansive storytelling.

This exhibition is intended to be a celebration of diversity, but also a declaration of queer independence that makes visible the struggle for identities and meaning. Objects, ideas, and texts from the past and present are mixed in this space to suggest alternative narratives that bring queer perspectives to the fore. The aim of this project is to provoke inquiries through affective interactions with the displayed objects, questioning ideas of authority, health, gender, religion, and whiteness. The visual aspect is the main element in this counter-humanities space.