Report: WE’RE NOT JUST A TREND: ART HAS ALWAYS BEEN QUEER. GUIDED TOURS & EVENTS ON QUEER PERSPECTIVES IN ART AT THE HAMBURGER KUNSTHALLE

“WE’RE NOT JUST A TREND: ART HAS ALWAYS BEEN QUEER. GUIDED TOURS & EVENTS ON QUEER PERSPECTIVES IN ART AT THE HAMBURGER KUNSTHALLE” 

Change happens very quickly for those, who keep their eyes on the past. This seems to be especially true, if you look at Old Masters in an Art Museum, which show us a world that does not exist anymore – or has never existed? 

Last Tuesday, Jenny Saitzek from the Hamburger Kunsthalle introduced us to a series of formats, that present a different perspective on art and that were initiated in 2022 related to an exhibition. “Femme Fatale. Gaze – Power – Gender” at the Hamburger Kunsthalle was the starting point to explore another view on history – a queer feminist perspective. This very successful exhibition gave the necessary courage to explore new topics, in the form of a Salon Fatale. Within the Salon, conversations about diversity, inclusion and queerness were initiated, laying the groundwork for what was to come the following year.

In her half hour talk, Jenny Saitzek laid out the four different formats that were organized by the Kunsthalle, namely:

• Queer Collection Tours

• Drag - Guided Museum Tours

• Queer Salon 

• Pride Week

Jenny explored the team’s idea of introducing a queer gaze to the museum, and the doubts and difficulties that crossed their path in the process, even though the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. But one major assumption was, that the museum would need a queer collection to carry out such an event. She realized, during her work with the LGBTQ+ Community within the collection, that the museum can reshape its perspectives, by explicitly recognizing queer content and opening up to queer perspectives. This reframing emphasizes the fact that museums do not need to create a separate "queer collection" but rather, that it is possible to integrate and recognize queerness within existing works and collections.

Jenny Saitzek then provided the audience with a series of hard facts and data, that show how well received these events are – in fact, they are so popular, that the maximum capacity of participants is exceeded on a regular basis. She ended her talk with a key sentence for her experiences with her newly developed events: Success begins with courage and ends with luck.

Portrait of Jenny Saitzek
© Sinje Hasheider