Recentring the historical narrative on queer figures, this exhibition delves into the archives of one of the region's first LGBTQ+ magazines.
ADVERTISEMENTWhen he opened ‘Fags’ – considered the first openly gay exhibition in Poland – and started queer arts magazine DIK in 2005, Karol Radziszewski started to dig into LGBTQ+ history in his native Poland and the surrounding region. His first Scottish solo exhibition shines a light on this largely untold story.
Radziszewski’s show at Edinburgh Art Festival centres around Filo Magazine, one of the first LGBTQ+ magazines in Central and Eastern Europe, founded by activist Ryszard Kisiel in response to communist-era repression of sexual minorities. The magazine served as a major catalyst for conversations about sexuality, creativity and politics.
In addition to telling the story of Filo, Radziszewski – a multidisciplinary artist, as well as founder of the Queer Archives Institute – juxtaposes archival materials from the 1980s and 90s with his own paintings of queer Central and Eastern European historical figures.
“On the one hand, in the vitrines, we can follow the history of the creation and evolution of ‘Filo’, one of the first queer magazines in Eastern Europe created before the Eastern Bloc collapsed,” Radziszewski told Euronews Culture. “On the other, we can see a series of my paintings portraying non-heteronormative figures from the region, and learn about their unusual biographies.”
Presented in a style evoking propagandistic portraits common to the Eastern Bloc, Radziszewski recentres the historical narrative on non-heteronormative figures.
“Both [parts of the exhibition] are intended to present the history from a different perspective by filling in the gaps,” he said.
Forming part of Edinburgh Art Festival, ‘Karol Radziszewski: Filo’ was jointly commissioned by the festival and Auto Italia. The show runs until 25 August 2024.
