The Behold exhibition offers a platform for queer bodies and relationships and suggests an exploration of ties between individuals and representation from a perspective of self-determination. This group of artists unrestrainedly invites us to gaze into their greatest intimacies and, through their works, disrupts the dynamics between the observer and the observed. By redefining, first for themselves, what inter- and intrapersonal relationships can look like, their practices refer to history, territory, and the ambiguity of words, performance, and photography.

With the immersive installation Have / Hold, Kyle Lasky and Wynne Neilly invite us to reflect on how to denominate interpersonal bonds outside traditional codes that classify and delimit relationships as romantic, sexual or friendly. Their practice of self-portraiture as a duo creates many dynamics, such as their gaze turned towards each other or coming together in front of the lens. Defying the perceptions that might be projected onto their relationship, they show themselves as they are, with an assumed presence. The connections that can be formed both in the encounter with the other and within one’s own body are often, in reality, more vaporous and ambiguous than rigid and restrictive conventions would have us believe. As for Kama La Mackerel, they embody this idea of the elusive in their video performance: Your Body Is the Ocean. It shows their naked body communing with a mound of salt at the intersection of multiple narratives, notably that of their trans-feminine identity and that of a refusal to be defined by the dominant gendered principles of the colonial perspective.


Many real and imagined spaces are also invested with the aim of understanding, transforming, or even losing oneself in them. Neeko Paluzzi imbues himself with the historical queer portraits captured by Wilhelm von Gloeden (1856-1931), depicting young men who embodied the masculine ideal of the time. He projects these idealized figures onto his body, simultaneously displaying and erasing himself. This fusional approach reveals a representation of queer identity and its positioning across different eras and contexts. Similarly, in their poem Looking Is How You Find Me, Darby Minott Bradford navigates interstitial spaces where words evoke as much as they question. Presented in audio format, the poem conjures up a quest for the possibilities of the imaginary. Bradford's voice is interwoven with ambient noises and a muted conversation, creating a strangely familiar soundscape.

In turn, Laurence Philomène takes us into two distinct spaces: that of the natural world and that of the home. In their portraits taken in Iceland, they blend into the dreamlike landscape. This immersion in nature evokes an intimacy that is also revealed in a year-long video diary in which they document fragments of daily life without artifice or censorship. Xénia's work is also situated between the private and the public. In her photo-poetic installation, she examines the relationships between her body, her words, and the memory-places that inhabit her. As her transition has occurred in the public eye, particularly on social networks, she now seeks to reclaim her story.

These rituals of intimate research are offered to the public sphere with abandon. They allow us to question the interactions provoked between the artists and the observers, and consequently lead us to ask: who's looking at who? In this sense, Behold is an invitation to consider the multiple dimensions of queer relationships and identities, and to contemplate the potential that lies outside cis-heteronormative constraints.

Annie France Noël
Guest curator