Bücher von Matthias Kliefoth

Spricht man heute über Queersein, die Ehe zwischen gleichgeschlechtlichen Paaren oder andere im gesellschaftlichen Mainstream repressiv behandelte Themen der LGBTQIA+-Gemeinschaft, stehen meist junge Menschen im Vordergrund. Queersein und Jugendlichkeit sind eng mit den gängigen Bildern in den Köpfen und Medien verknüpft. Viele ältere Personen haben aufgrund gesellschaftlicher Stigmatisierung und Diskriminierung ihre sexuellen Identitäten lange verstecken und Erfahrungen nicht öffentlich mitteilen können. Doch gerade ihnen und ihrem Kampf in der Freiheitsbewegung sind Meilensteine in der Gleichberechtigung zu verdanken wie etwa die Abschaffung des Paragrafen 175 im deutschen Strafgesetzbuch. Er stellte bis 1994 sexuelle Handlungen zwischen Personen männlichen Geschlechts unter Strafe und ermöglichte somit über 123 Jahre die Unterdrückung und Verfolgung der LGBTQIA+-Gemeinschaft. Anlässlich des Jubiläums zur Abschaffung des Paragrafen 175 widmet sich das interdisziplinäre Fotoprojekt Mit Euren Spuren , für das sechs junge Fotograf*innen mit acht queeren Senior*innen zusammenarbeiteten, dem Altern jenseits der Norm. Das Resultat ist ein transgenerationaler Austausch über queeres Leben und die Erfahrungen der jeweiligen Generationen. Über ein Jahr dokumentierten Teo Ana Apostolescu, Mara Fischer, Francesco Giordano, Joseph Wolfgang Ohlert, Florian Tenk und Stella Deborah Traub ihre intensiven Begegnungen mit den Senior*innen. Mit Fotografien, Texten und der Aufbereitung von Archivmaterialien zeigt das Buch einen sehr persönlichen Austausch, der die Errungenschaften mutiger vorangegangener Generationen und queeres Erbe sichtbar macht. We've Always Been Around-Aging beyond Heteronormativity When people talk about what it means to be queer, about same-sex marriage or other concerns of the LGBTQIA+ community that have long met with repression from mainstream society, they typically focus on young people. In the images in our heads as well as the ones that circulate in the media, queerness is closely associated with youth. Due to societal stigmatization and discrimination, many of today's seniors long concealed their sexual identities and never got an opportunity to share their experiences with the public. Yet it is in fact to them and their struggles in the liberation movement that we owe milestones of equality such as the repeal of section 175 of the German Criminal Code in 1994. Making sexual acts between males a crime, it was in force for 123 years and provided the basis for the oppression and persecution of the LGBTQIA+ community. To celebrate the anniversary of the repeal of section 175, the interdisciplinary photography project Mit Euren Spuren , for which six young photographers collaborated with eight queer senior citizens, turns the spotlight on aging outside the norm. The result is an intergenerational exchange of ideas about queer life and the distinctive experiences of different generations. For over a year, Teo Ana Apostolescu, Mara Fischer, Francesco Giordano, Joseph Wolfgang Ohlert, Florian Tenk, and Stella Deborah Traub documented their extraordinarily interesting and inspiring encounters with their partners. In photographs, writings, and an arrangement of selected archival materials, the book records very personal conversations, drawing attention the achievements won by the courage of earlier generations and helping to preserve a queer legacy.

Exposing photographic archivesLighting the Archive, which went online in 2020, is an open-ended series of conversations with artists like Annette Kelm, Elfie Semotan, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Ulrich Wüst about photographic techniques, structures of order, and materialities. The conversations are invariably framed by questions about where the photographers see their life's works and legacies over the long term-what, in other words, is to become of their oeuvres one day. In Exposing Tears, Lighting the Archive engage the writer and curator Mike Sperlinger in dialogue. Sperlinger studied the careers of the photographers Marianne Wex and Chauncey Hare through the lens of the art market's economy of attention and interwove biographical facts with external circumstances shaping their paths, including their withdrawals from the art system and their eventual rediscovery as "forgotten artists." An essay by Mike Sperlinger relates how the latter was possible; Lighting the Archive's Maren Lübbke-Tidow and Rebecca Wilton spoke to the author to discuss the central role that the question of the archive played in his efforts.