History of the Festival
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
Queerfest in St. Petersburg is a cultural festival, which raises issues of human rights, identities, gender, and sexuality. The festival consists of events of different formats and sizes: photo exhibitions, discussions, films, workshops, excursions, and concerts.
Queerfest is a human rights, non-commercial festival. We create space for learning more about ourselves, society, and the world around us. We oppose xenophobia, sexism, discrimination, and violence.
Queerfest comes around annually in Saint Petersburg since autumn 2009. This year, Queerfest will take place for the 11th time!
The concept of Queerfest and its events were supported by Vladimir Pozner, Artemiy Troitzkiy, Linor Goralik, Lena Katina (t.A.T.u. band), Marina Cherkunova (Total band), Stephen Fry, Ian McKellen, musician Jay-Jay Johanson, Alexandre Bard and "Army of lovers", Boris Dittrich (Human Rights Watch), Kosheen band, Angie (Sweden) and Parks, Squares & Alleys (Russia).
The concept of Queerfest lies in European prides: cultural and human rights events lasting for a week and culminating with a demonstration; in the Russian context, however, instead of a march, there is a concert in support of the LGBT+ communities in Russia.
From the LGBT invisibility and isolation; through careful attempts to build a dialogue and the first steps in the public space; through negligence by media; through comprehension of gender and feminist issues; through protests, threats and refuses; despite persecution by the state and prohibitive legislative initiatives; due to words and actions of support from around the world; towards a comprehension of us being one whole and a clear understanding of our right to be ourselves: this is a short story of our festival.
HISTORY OF THE FESTIVAL
Eleventh Queerfest-2019
"It can be different" - that was the topic highlighted this year. We see the world differently: depending on how it is customary to perceive reality in the society around us or in the family that raised us; through situations lived in personal experience, it is unique and it is available in understanding entirely only to ourselves. In 2019 we suggested our guests abandon stereotypes and stereotypes' stereotypes.
Damien Frost presented the Night Flowers exhibition about drag kings and drag queens, which he met near and sometimes in the London clubs. They are walking pieces of art, the streets are their scene and every moment of life is their performance.
Zalina Marshenkulova, blogger and journalist, lectured (and partly performed) about how it was "great" until feminists came. You can watch the lecture's recording.
In an interactive discussion, we talked about how our expectancies and assumptions about transgender people construct and how they collapse.
Ksenia Borodinskaya, an author of Telegram channel about gender-neutral parenting "That is how they become gay", wrote a brochure about the popular topic of gender stereotypes.
The festival was supported by different partners and, for the first time in history, by business companies: Aviasales, M.A.C Cosmetics, Lush, Sweden Institute, and others.
Queerfest was closed with project Digital 21 + Stefan Olsdal techno-concert.
Over 9 days, more than 1,500 people attended the events, and more than 23,000 people followed us online.
Tenth Queerfest – 2018
«I’m proud of my culture» was a theme of the 10th Queerfest. We talked about the culture of LGBT people, and the place of LGBT in the wider world culture.
Photographer Jeff Sheng presented his photo project «Transgender military», which presents images of people who could not legally join the military service due to American laws. Although the law «Don’t ask. Don’t tell» was canceled in 2011, and so it became legal for homo- and bisexual people to serve in the military, current legislation still did not allow transgender people to do the same.
In collaboration with Grindr, we held a workshop «Just sex: mapping your desire», where we learned more about our desires to start claiming them, to live in truth and strength of our freeing sexuality.
We discussed how we connect our identities to religion: what are the interpretations of sacred texts, and whether we can create our own churches — community churches — to support our spiritual needs. How can we change modern sport so as to make it accessible to everyone without exceptions, and what does the global community do to achieve it.
The topic of the festival was continued in the compilation of personal stories «Everyone has a body». It consists of eight stories of LGBT+ people. We hope that stories tackling various bodily experiences that may or may not resemble your own will be a reason to get in touch with yourself in both literal and metaphorical senses.
The interest in our fest has been growing despite homophobic provocations: on 27 and 28 of September, Queerfest became a target for fake bomb alarms. Organizers had to stop the events and evacuate the visitors from ARTMUSA, our main venue. Regardless of those issues, all of the Queerfest events took their place: the meetings either were continued on different venues or were rescheduled.
During 10 days, the fests’ events were visited by more than 2800 guests. 800 wonderful people attended the closing party. Live broadcasts of our events were viewed 50 hundred times.
Ninth Queerfest – 2017
In 2017, the focus of the festival was personal stories of LGBT people in Russia and around the world. Following the Life Line: that was the topic of ninth Queerfest. The festival plunged into stories of people from LGBT communities unraveling our everyday lives. There was space for everything existing in the lives of all the people – for voices, identities, love, loneliness, addictions, families, bodies, physical and mental health, age, death.
Where Love is Illegal — photo project by Robin Hammond was exhibited at Queerfest 2017. The project showed what the discriminatory gender policy of heteronormative societies is like – and how far it can go. Love stories of LGBT couples turn into stories of survival when this favored by so many couples genre – a love story – is set in the countries where legislative or social institutions forbid homosexual relationships and relationships in which the people’s identities are not defined. The exhibition showed stories told by people from countries where the legal status of LGBT was different: Cameroon, Lebanon, Republic of Malawi, Malaysia, Russia, Tunis, Uganda, South Africa, and Jamaica.
One of the events told about the work and life of Tove Jansson, a Finnish write and mother of the Mommins. Jansson had a long life and managed to have been born on the
territory of the Russian Empire (it was the Grand Duchy of Finland back then), write a couple of dozens philosophical stories for children and adults, get engaged to a man but live with a
woman for 45 years, become a millionaire at 50 and come out as a lesbian at 79. The event was hosted by the scholars from Finland: Tuula Karjalainen (the Russian edition of her book about Tove had been published) and Mikko Ornaner from the Helsinki Art Museum.
«My Intersex Story» collection continued the series of Queerfest publications. We collected stories of three intersex people – three destinies, three long paths towards self-awareness and acceptance of our own corporeality, liberation from fear, shame, and pain.
The festival ended with a concert by provocative ?ngie from Sweden and soulful Parks, Squares & Alleys from Russia.
Eighth QUEERFEST – 2016
In 2016, the festival was dedicated to the topic “Seeing the Invisible”. We talked about different groups inside society and identities inside the LGBT community; often their existence and problems are not noticed. We talked about LGBT with HIV, about LGBT with disabilities and neuroatypical LGBT, about transgender people and people with non-binary identities, about intersex people, about those who go beyond what seems “typical’ in society and are considered marginal; about the exclusion of those people from the community and about ways how to overcome this exclusion.
Gabrielle Herman, a photograph from the US, presented her photo project “The Kids”. For 4 years, she had been working with people whose parents belong to the LGBT communities. Numerous stories collected by Herman through photos, texts, and audios are a part of a complex conversation about family politics, signifiers of the social development, those ideas and meanings that make some groups invisible for the others.
QUEERFEST-2016 is best remembered for a diverse OPEN SPACE program: it was filled out with Teatr.doc (Moscow, Russia), a cultural and educational project “DOTYK” (Minsk, Belarus), Association of Russian Speaking Intersex People (Russia, Kazakhstan, Germany, the US), the initiative group Queer-Peace (St Petersburg, Russia), the initiative group T-Action (St Petersburg, Russia) as well as feminists and LGBT activists from Russia and Kazakhstan.
Sian Evan, a vocalist of Kosheen, supported the festival through her performance. Moreover, we had other two international guests: Ugla Stefan?a Kristj?nud?ttir, a trans*queer activist, writer, gender researcher, and Fox Fisher, a trans*activist, artist, maker of videos about trans*people from the UK.
The festival was held without any changes in venues, attacks, or provocations!
The seventh QUEERFEST – 2015
In 2015, the main topic of the Queerfest program became a variety of identities. This subject was developed through the works of world-renowned photographers: Wolfgang Tillmans (project ‘Activism as identity’); the winner of an international contest “World Press Photo 2015” Mads Nissen (project ‘Homophobia in Russia’); American photographer Sarah Deragon and her ‘Identity Project', and Vincent Voignier (project ‘Transgenders in Russia’). Their art was displayed during the 'Way to identity' exhibition.
Three photo projects had been exhibited for all 10 days of Queerfest. The fourth one, by a popular German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans – was only available for visitors at the opening day: due to the pressure by the police and homophobic activists, the organizers of the festival were forced to change the venue and it was not possible to exhibit 'Activism as identity' project in the new venue.
Many people came to support and participate in 2015’s Queerfest program – such as Boris Dittrich (advocacy director of LGBT Rights Program in Human Rights Watch); American photographer and author of one of the exhibited projects Sarah Deragon and her wife; photographers Mass Nissen and Vincent Voignier; Ulf Pettersson (the founder and director of Stockholm’s museum ‘Unstraight’); Matias Cristoffersen (one of the organizers of Stockholm’s Pride); Jesper Groen (photographer documenting transgender people’s lives) and many others. Queerfest’s program ended with a performance of Motoboy – a Swedish singer, a member of the legendary “Cardigans”.
Video messages supporting Queerfest were made by Stephen Fry, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Marina Cherkunova (a member of the band “TOTAL”).
The 2015’s Queerfest was diverse and intense but all parts were integrated into the whole picture. All events and exhibitions have found a way to cover a topic of Identity from different points of view. More than 2500 thousands of people from all over Russia came to see the festival.
The sixth QUEERFEST – 2014
By 2014 “QueerFest” became a notable event in the cultural life of St. Petersburg, in the lives of the LGBT community and allies, artists, activists, representatives of various social groups. The program of “QueerFest-2014” was rich and diverse: for the guests of the festival several interesting photo projects were prepared (“Days of a melancholy”, “Butch”, “New Rebels”), lectures, workshops, and discussions ( lecture by Lenore Goralik “How to start a conversation about tolerance”, lecture by Irina Roldugina "All of us are not criminals: homosexual subculture of the early Soviet Petrograd", discussion “Social Art and Civil Citizenship” and others), “Night of Independent Music” and the closing performance “St. Petersburg without homophobia” by Swedish singer Jenny Wilson as well.
The complicated situation with human rights, down in Russia over the last two years, has made a serious correction in the plans of the organizers of the festival: influenced both by pressure from the government and by attacks of radical groups.
Excerpts from Andrew’s personal experience, guest musician, volunteer, and visitor, about the first five days of "QueerFest":
“- The place of the opening event was forcedly changed because of provocateurs coming to the initial location
- At the factual place of opening event dozens of visitors were doused with green disinfectant
- During the first two days four of the pre-arranged locations refused in conducting events (a few hours before the events start);
- Opening concert had to be carried out in another place; we (as musicians) got to know it just two hours before soundcheck;
- 10 minutes after the concert someone called to the club with a message about mining; the caller is not identified so far;
- The event on Monday was canceled for security reasons;
- A press conference dedicated to the disruption of Queerfest 2014 was oppressed by authorities who asked organizers to cancel the press conference with the wording "This press conference is a danger to society";
- Two (of two) deputies from Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, who had agreed to participate in a press conference, announced that they will not come due to being busy (a few minutes before the start)”.
Despite the provocations, the attempts of break-downs, numerous threats, and refuses of venues, “QueerFest-2014” took place! More than 1,000 people attended the event, more than 800 people joined it online. It became obvious that regardless of all the problems and obstacles, year after year "QueerFest" will create a place for an open discussion about discrimination, homophobia, and injustice.
The Fifth QUEERFEST – 2013
At the beginning of 2013, the existence of the Festival was compromised. First of all, this was because of the abrupt change of the situation in the country: with the repression of the LGBT organizations, demonstrative cases against “foreign agents” and aggression toward sexual minorities, warmed up by homophobic laws.
At the same time, the organizers began to receive dozens of questions, suggestions, words of encouragement from all over the world: from the LGBT community, friends, supporters, and partners of the festival. Therefore, it becomes obvious that the tightening of the situation in Russian society exacerbates the need for the Festival. So the decision was made – Queer Fest 2013 was held.
The format of the festival in 2013 was different from the previous years. The organizers and curators of the event plunged guests into a rich, dramatic history of the emancipation of LGBT in Russia and Europe. A retrospective exhibition dedicated to the twentieth anniversary of the abolition of the Article 121 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (for "sodomy"), the project “History of Prides. The countries”, discussion on the role of women in the history of the LGBT community were waiting for the visitors. One of the most interesting guests of the festival was the musician Alexander Bard («Army of Lovers»), who spoke about his personal history of LGBT activism in Sweden.
Klaus Wowereit, the Mayor of Berlin (Germany); from the circulation in a support of Queer Fest:
“Anyone who limits the abilities of others because of their religion, the color of the skin, or sexual orientation threats them, threats the whole society. This is about the basic principles of our coexistence. This is about the core values: humanity, tolerance, and freedom to be different, not like everybody else.”
The forth QUEERFEST – 2012
The hope for education and promotion of the democratic values in Russian society that has emerged after the success of 2011 was replaced by desperate anxiety. The year 2012 started with a stab in the back to all of the LGBT community. Only 2 months after Queer Fest 2011 in Saint-Petersburg’s Government was introduced the draft of the homophobic law, which has reminded many people of the early periods of a totalitarian regime, which had begun from the repression of the LGBT. In February 2012, the law was adopted with an absolute majority and the context in which the September festival was prepared has immediately changed. The organizers began to feel a serious fear of the attacks (which was supported by the sad experience of May “Rainbow flashmob”, when the activists who came to speak out for the right of LGBT were attacked by more than a hundred of the Nazis).
Stephen Fry, English actor and writer:
“In recent years, it wasn’t easy to be open and proud in Russia and you needed special courage to defend yourself in an atmosphere of hostility and ignorance. I think that this kind of courage, the integrity of the personality, and the sense of pride for themselves are very Russian qualities. The prosperous and happy gay community is a symbol of a healthy society”.
This time the main topic of the festival was the creation of the space for a free expression of the LGBT culture from both sides: a dialogue between people who do not belong to the community and those who are inside.
That year “QueerFest” also was strongly supported by famous people: the festival began with a video message from a famous British actor Sir. Ian McKellen (“Lord of the Rings”, “X-Men”, “The Da Vinci Code” and others), and finished with a recital of Lena Katina (ex T.A.T.U.). By the way, this was the first time in the history of the festival when it was supported by a Russian celebrity.
Within 10 days program guests could see the cultural panopticon: in “Taiga” and “Mart” (“March”) were held an exhibition-performance “The Art of Being Yourself”, media installations, a social photo exhibition “Private Room”, project “Non-traditional museum”, meetings with artists, street art on the theme of LGBT activism. The events of Queer Fest became places for a discussion on LGBT issues around the world. At the same time, the cultural space of the festival faced obstacles in the form of new laws: particularly, the law protecting the children from the “adverse information”. We had to hang the signs “18+” throughout the exhibition and had to remove some works of the transsexual photographer Evan Schwartz because there were artist’s child photos.
To the relief of organizers and guests of the festival, all the concerns about the aggressive reaction of the society were in vain. The possible explanation for this was the presence of the diplomats and ministers of the western countries at almost every Queer Fest’s event. Anyway, it gave us hope for further successful development of the festival in an open format. However, in 2013 the context of the festival should have changed dramatically.
The third QUEERFEST – 2011
In 2011 Queer Fest has attracted much attention of the media. If previously medias preferred to distort readers’ opinion by writing about gay-prides, scandals and provocations, in 2011 from the beginning of our work the festival got an adequate informational and analytic coverage on the radio and TV.
Polina Adrianova, organization team of “QueerFest”:
“The problem of social exclusion exists, it’s real. But it is very difficult for people who have never faced it to understand and accept it as their own problem. The art can help them to survive this experience as their personal, makes them think about it, evokes a sense of empathy. The language of art is common and accessible to everyone. It gives us an opportunity to understand each other more quickly.”
In 2011 a photo exhibition, open discussions, and debates, meeting with artists and musicians were visited by 2000 people.
An important achievement of that year was the fact that in 2011 for the first time the direct dialogue between the advocates of gays and lesbians rights and the supporters of the traditional values took place. Before this, the attempts of LGBT activists to start the public discussion with the opponents met only refusals and reluctance to discuss anything.
Journalist and writer Valery Panyushkin about the discussion:
“There should be not one or two discussions like this, but hundreds: every day, on this subject, on another subject – on any subject”.
Another important moment of the festival was a feminist event. Until 2011 Russian LGBT activism addressed feminism very rarely, despite the fact that the problem of gender discrimination is obviously and directly concerns of lesbians, gays, transgenders, and bisexuals.
The venue where feminists from different countries and of different movements brought together to talk about their views aroused a great interest of the public and the media. In autumn 2011 as a result of the discussion, the book “I’M A FIMINIST. DO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT?” (edited by Maria Sabunaeva) was published.
The exhibition “Queerography” was curated by Nadya Plungian. The collection of photos, collages, videos, and movies where the creators speak in the first person about the problems of marginality and social exclusion was presented on 4 different venues of Saint-Petersburg. The main venue where the festival events took place was dedicated to a feminist art.
As in 2010, the festival wasn’t without difficulty. The administration of the venue “Nepokorennye, 17” (“Unconquered, 17”) asked to remove Olga Akhmetieva’s exhibition right before the opening. Moscow photographer made single portraits of men shown without the stereotypes of masculine behavior, in terms of men’s vulnerability. Akhmetieva’s photos were removed to the gallery “Mart” (“March”).
“Queerography” presented not only well-known names (Mattia Insolera, Karina Sembe, SergeGolovach, Steven Beckly, Lida Mihailova) but also young artists from Russia and Ukraine (Kir Esadov, Mikaela, Polina Zadirako, Umnaya Masha (Smart Mary), Elena Maksimova, Katya Romanova, Isabella Levina, Ekaterina Gaidukova and others). In the halls of feminists’ art was the premier of Marina Vinnik’s film “Pain”, nominated for the Kandinsky Award. A special stand of the exhibition was dedicated to the documentation of political LGBT actions and rallies.
At the closing rock show, Saint-Petersburg queer community was supported by Moldovan bands Cuibul and ZDOB SI ZDUB, as well as some Russians: СНЕГА, FILLI, MONOЛИЗА, ИВАНОВА.
Within 11 days citizens and visitors of the city had an opportunity to join discussions on the issues of sex, gender, sexuality, and discrimination faced by LGBT people.
The second QUEERFEST – 2010
In 2010 Queer Fest faced more hostile conditions. The main partner of the photo exhibition “And Others”, the Exhibition Centre of Saint-Petersburg Union of Artists, stopped the lease agreement 24 hours before the opening and informed us about the impossibility of hosting the events of Queer Fest on the venue.
The volunteer team curated by Solmaz Guseynova in one night finished the installation of the exhibition in a new place – V-club. Despite the difficult circumstances and due to the volunteers’ discipline the festival was opened on time and has passed successfully.
Within 10 days on different venues the seminars and discussions, performances, poetry meetings, workshops with the slogan “The Art of Being Yourself” took place. The conference on gender issues was timed for the festival: the result of the scientific discussion was the publication “Is Queer Possible in Russian”.
The grandiose rock marathon became the completion of the Festival – 12 bands performed in the “Orlandina” Club in the support of the idea of tolerance, equality, and non-violence. The words that everybody has the right to an open expression of love, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity were said from the stage. Jay Jay Johanson, a famous Swedish musician, who came specially to support Petersburg LGBT community, captured the hearts of the audience with his clean soulful voice and touching songs.
Altogether 2700 people visited Queer Fest. According to organizers, the festival has not only achieved its aims but also exceeded expectations.
Polina Adrianova, organization team of “QueerFest”:
”Even if only one person began to think that if somebody does not fit the usual concept of the norm, this is not the reason for his/her discrimination, it means we’ve already won”.
In 2010 the Festival of Queer Culture was supported by the journalist and TV presenter Vladimir Pozner, English actor and playwright Stephen Fry, the governing Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, Belgian singer Lara Fabian, journalist Valery Panyushkin, music critic Artemy Troitsky and many others.
The first QUEERFEST – 2009
In autumn 2009 for the first time in the history of modern Russia, an International Festival of Queer Culture took place in Saint-Petersburg. This event had a great cultural and social significance not only for the members of queer-community, but also for the fans of contemporary art.
Within ten days at the several venues the plays were performed, shows and discussions were organized, exhibitions and poets battles took place and all-night parties were held. Artists, actors and musicians of different directions and aesthetic credos from different cities of Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Spain, Israel, and the USA attended the festival.
Altogether about 3000 people visited the festival. We want to believe that everyone felt a part of a common culture. The festival became not only the beginning of a dialogue, but it also raised the question of the limits of visibility of the LGBT-community in Russia, became an indication of the need of revising the social stereotypes.
Svetlana Yaroshenko, sociologist:
"I like the idea of uniting “different” people, who don’t fit the conventional framework. Almost everyone can appear in such a situation. However, often it seems that the situation is exceptional. And I would like the exclusivity to become neither a fashion, no a game of equality, but a subject of practical dialogue. When the desire of being heard and visible combines with the willingness to see and to listen to others, with the sympathy, with the ability to negotiate and to do something together, instead of putting the labels. A special skill is needed for this. I think creativity can help.”
The fact that the festival has passed, gave us hope for the continuation and development of human rights and cultural initiatives, which could eventually turn into a good tradition.
