Queering the Museum - queer books in Fernando Pessoa’s library
Queering the Museum - queer books in Fernando Pessoa’s library
28 Sep 2024 · 5 Jan 2025
Curated by André Murraças
The project Queering in the museum proposes a queer reinterpretation of the collections of Portuguese museums. For Casa Fernando Pessoa, an exhibition intervention was designed in Fernando Pessoa's private library, highlighting authors and books with queer characters and experiences, or subjects outside heteronormativity.
The word "queer" began to be used as a pejorative term for "homosexual"; but since the 1990s it has been chosen by non-heterosexual people to define their identity. The concept is also accepted by the academic universe and, in the theoretical context applied to the arts, it is a term relatable to the variety of identities, sexual and gender practices that deviate from heterosexual ideas, or that demonstrate their ambiguity.
Among the poet's collection of books, we find a range of titles on queer experiences – something that we consider recent, but which has, in fact, always existed. That said, which queer books are part of Pessoa's private library?
André Murraças made a selection of nine works/documents, which will be featured in Pessoa's private library room, between September 28th and January 5th. In addition to the works on display, there will be a contextualization about these characters and authors. In some cases, their identity, being different from the normative, had an impact on their artistic work.
The exhibition will be supplemented by three reading sessions, which will take place in September, November, and December. Entry will be free, as well as an edition of a magazine and social network interventions at Casa Fernando Pessoa. More information about the reading program in the room sheet.
Works that make up the exhibition:
[The works of] Euripides (1916)
A Confissão de Lúcio (1914), Mário de Sá-Carneiro
Antinous (1918), Fernando Pessoa
La mare au diable (1898), George Sand
Leaves of Grass (1855), Walt Whitman
Nova Sapho (1912), Visconde de Villa Moura
Octávio (1916), Victoriano Braga
Revista Europa (1925), Dir. Judith Teixeira
Sáchá - comentários à vida moderna (1923), Francisco Metello
Sodoma Divinisada (1923), Raul Leal
DOWNLOAD ROOM SHEET
Curatorship and texts: André Murraças
Production: Casa Fernando Pessoa
Leaflet Design: Atelier-do-ver
Actors in the staged readings: Francisco Goulão, Gonçalo Santos, Joana Manuel, Leonardo Proganó and Margarida Bento
Co-production: Canário Bonacheirão
Acknowledgements:
Documentary archive CEDANSA – NOVA FCSH / Heirs of José de Almada Negreiros National Library
The project Queering in the museum is sponsored by DGArtes and CCDR LVT+ Cultura.
Find out more about the project Queering in the museum at: