Literature

Commemorate and Celebrate

From an early age, we are socialized into gender roles: to be a man in one way and a woman in another, typically as opposites. If a woman is weak, a man is strong; if a woman is sensitive, a man is tough, and so on. The idea is that this creates a complementary dynamic, and thus the world is organized. It seems straightforward and easy to understand, yet reality is not so simple. Sooner or later, everyone comes to realize—or learns—that gender, desire, and sexuality are arranged in so many ways that existing categories fall short. In the face of this discovery, responses vary: some live it, some embrace it, and others try to deny it—because acknowledging it would mean admitting they live within a fiction consensually upheld for centuries, and that the world as they know it is not what it seems.

In 2024, Isabel Croxatto Galería, in collaboration with Fundación Mecenas, launched an open call titled "Commemorate or Celebrate?" In its second iteration, the question turned into a certainty: it is necessary to commemorate and celebrate. Commemoration is always essential—it allows us to recognize those who have paved the way and put their bodies on the line to challenge normative consensus. Celebration is vital because there is a community that resists, that finds joy despite it all.

Eighteen artists participate in this exhibition, which seeks to make these two dimensions visible, albeit not in a binary way. Here, celebration and commemoration blur; protest can emerge through humor; the body may be approached through cold, alien materials or the fluidity of water; identity questions might be represented through alien imaginaries, to name just a few examples.

The works gathered here emerge from particular experiences and do not aim to define queer art, because there are no themes or materials that can confine it. Perhaps what unites them all is a shared spirit of defiance. None of the artists settled for a world divided between men and women, destined to perpetuate heterosexuality and gender binarism. Many of us have not lived this experience firsthand, yet embracing a more complex and diverse understanding of the world allows us all to be more open with others and with ourselves.

Mariairis Flores Leiva, researcher in contemporary art

“Remember that life is something very pleasurable and that we must truly make the most of it and leave behind all those inept boundaries that don’t let us live in peace and that chip away at us, keeping us in constant suffering. There’s no need—don’t drag that can around anymore, have fun, enjoy yourself, do what you want, and be great.”— Hija de Perra