Sofia Queer Forum is an event that investigates, with the means of contemporary arts, gender and sexuality as parallel systems through which we value ourselves and the others around us. These systems have a strong influence on all aspects of culture and society. The influence is, of course, two-sided. This is why in focus here is also the changing of the concepts “gender” and “sexuality” depending on social, political, cultural and medical factors that are inherent in a given time and space. 

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Website: https://sofiaqueerforum.org

The poster of Sofia Queer Forum 2017.
Photo courtesy Sofia Queer Forum.

2017 Sofia Queer Forum was dedicated to the centenary of the October Revolution. This occasion was a great opportunity to reflect on the variety of controversies this date has been associated with around the world. We would like to rediscover through arts some of the ideas that brought to life changes in gender relations – such as simplification and secularization of marriage and divorce, legalization of abortion, emancipation of women: obtaining voting rights, economic independence, socialized care and security of maternity, as well as the expression of sexual identity (homosexuality was decriminalized from 1922 until 1933 in USSR) - as a result of the revolutionary thought. This specific moment in time of an actual transformation of power, when systems of social relations have changed dramatically, had been a time of chaos, but also a time of discovery. We are interested in this exact time of rupture, in the discoveries that have been made then including all controversies around them and how they affect our practices now.

SQF 2017 consisted of an international video competition, with three awardees and shortlisted videos, which were shown at Creative hall; also an exhibition at Aeter, and a published catalogue, which includes texts dedicated to the forum and a bibliography related to the topic this year and information about the artists and their works.