Can desire, freed of all restrictions, really dismantle society and capitalism? For many of those involved in the 1970s gay liberation movement in France, the answer was definitely yes. Groups like Les Gazolines, the Front for Homosexual Revolutionary Action, Gouines Rouges, and thinkers such as Guy Hocquenghem, and artists such as Lionel Soukaz and sought to transform not only the rights for sexual minorities, but sexuality, subjectivity and life as we know it, casting off all regulations, setting in motion what we now take to be anti-normative politics. But against this was a grain of other thought, which questioned both this repressive thesis, and pointed out the ethical limits of being without norms. Paul Clinton will draw upon his exhibitions, essays and programming on this era and queer politics, to show how these ideas affected the art of the time,a dn the conflicts that arose in the process.
Paul Clinton is a writer based in London. He is Lecturer in Curating at Goldsmiths and was 2019-22 Royal Academy Critic in Residence. For five years he was a senior editor at frieze magazine and has published internationally. His exhibitions include Forbidden to Forbid, Balice Hertling, Paris; Limp, Curated.by, Vienna; Duh? Art & Stupidity, Focal Point Gallery, Southend on Sea.
The event will be followed by a drinks reception from 19.00-20.30
