(co-curated with Lucas Ondak, Clara Prat-Gay, Andrew Suggs, Micaela Vindman, and Clara von Turkovich)
Dueñas de la noche presents the 1982 documentary TRANS for the first time in the United States. A ground-breaking depiction of a group of sex workers in Caracas, sourced from the archive of documentarians Manuel Herreros de Lemos and Mateo Manaure Arilla at the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) in New York City, this exhibition includes photographs and ephemera from the film’s production. The photographs—taken for the women in exchange for their participation in the documentary—show how the protagonists of TRANS creatively embodied their dreams alongside the realities of sex work, violence, and urban architecture. The exhibition explores these women’s stories, their strategies of survival, and their personal aspirations as valuable to trans history, present struggles, and queer futures.
Presented at the Hessel Museum of Art, CCS Bard Galleries, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, December 7 – December 17, 2023.
Installation views from Dueñas de la noche, CCS Bard Galleries, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, December 7 – 17, 2023.
Photo: Olympia Shannon 2023.
Photo: Olympia Shannon 2023.