Nevertheless, in this case, the obstacle is transformed into power. As, when it comes to representing the sex of the angels, R\u00e9au classifies, the typology of the young angels coexist and are mixed as a beautiful and blond teenager with blond hair, women angels and children angels. And precisely, with a quick stroll through the gothic art rooms of the museum collection, we could observe this ambiguity of gender with which this iconography has been represented. This is what we do, for example, when stopping at the Altarpiece of Archangel Saint Michael<\/em> attributed to Joan Mates – the first quarter of the 14th century – or the Altarpiece of Saint Michael and Saint Peter <\/em>by Jaume Cirera and Bernat Despuig – 1432-1433. Precisely in front of this piece, the activist and researcher specializing in intersexualities decided to stop to share with attendees of this first visit, not only this possibility of intersexual people to find iconographic alliances with the representation of angels, but especially with that of black angels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The altarpiece represents well-known episodes with an angelical presence\nsuch as the triumph of the Archangel Saint Michael leading the battle against\nrebel angels, the same saint weighing souls or Saint Peter being released from\nprison of Rome by an angel. Above the two central figures, the fall of the\nrebel angels appears, establishing a clear difference between young angels and\nthose who have not respected the divine authority, transforming themselves in\ntheir fall into hell into monstrous black angels. Maria is especially\ninterested in this predella and shares a case of specific identification in\nadolescence with the figure of the black angel. The rebellious view is not\nestablished here, therefore, with the identification with the angel, but with\nthat of the fallen angel, thus establishing a parallelism between the one who\ndared to confront the divine authority and the existence of a corporality that\ndefies the hegemonic modes that impose a single binary definition of sex and gender.\nIn this way, the appropriation of angelical iconography from a rebellious\nintersexual view not only allowed making the “I” of the LGBTIs less\ninvisible and unknown, but also to take sides and celebrate with pride the\nrebellion of the black angels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Leaving the angels to one side, or rescuing the one that whispered in\nthe ear of San Sebasti\u00e1n de Mates, we have opened up the second way that was\nderived from the Christian Apollo. We refer here to the ties between certain Christian iconographies and homosexual\nexperiences, many of them linked to the outbreak of AIDS from the end of the\neighties onwards, of the twentieth century<\/strong>. And, after a return to a more\npathetic San Sebasti\u00e1n, tormented and aged in Baroque plastic art, Bernini,\nReni, in the nineteenth and especially the twentieth centuries, they will\nrescue, now explicitly, a saint who is sexualized and delivered to homoerotism.\nIn this sense we could incorporate multiple photographs of the couple formed by\nPierre et Gilles, but we prefer to mention the pieces by David Wojnarowicz and\nDerek Jarman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In one of the scenes of the first film of the English filmmaker, Sebastiane<\/em> -1976-, the saint appears on the ground with a stance that inevitably refers to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Jarman recuperates in this way the connections that throughout the history of art have been established between the ordeal of the son of God and the saint martyred during the persecution of Diocletian. In fact, this link is confirmed in the museum’s own collection with the pieces by Ferrer and Mates mentioned above. However, we choose the pedestal of Christ from 1147 <\/em>– anonymous, consecrated in 1147 – and that of the Batll\u00f3 Majesty<\/em> – anonymous, mid-seventeenth century – to develop this dialogue; and if we do so, it is because a group of 20th century creators compared the ordeal lived by Christ with the one lived by being homosexual or seropositive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To develop this last sequence of rebellious views around the iconography of the Passion, we would be accompanied on different days by Nancy Gar\u00edn, Aimar P\u00e9rez and Jaime Conde-Salazar. The reasons for this selection could be multiple, but are mainly justified by the Anarxiu Sida<\/em> project, developed by the researcher together with the Team Re around the link between visuality and HIV\/AIDS in Latin America and the Spanish State; and for the multiple materials derived from the work, The Touching Community, in which Aimar, in collaboration with Jaime and other people, have investigated the relationship between the outbreak of AIDS and contact dance, also in Spanish-speaking countries. Thus, taking as a reference the two above-mentioned Romanesque sculptures where it is confirmed to us, not only the richness of the museum wood sculpture collection, but also the presence of the “Majesty” as one of the most developed types in Catalonia during this period, where we cultivate a new constellation of rebellious views. Because, both the marks of martyrdom lived as the symbolism of the triumph over death incarnated in the two sculptures mentioned, serve to observe how these contents linked to this iconography have been cited by those homosexuals who would live the crude beginning of the outbreak of AIDS. Remembering here some examples that include, for example, the painting by Derek Jarman from his series, Smashing Times, where a crucifix with a pot of lubricant, a condom with blood remains and the word “AIDS”, or all those actions by Latin American artists that Nancy spoke to us about, where in many cases the issue of AIDS was accompanied by repressive dictatorial contexts, such as Pedro Lemebel, Francisco Copello, Guillermo Moscoso or the Yeguas del Apocalipsis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order to enlarge this last dialogue we move to another of the predominant sculptural typologies in the Catalan Romanesque: the descent from the cross<\/strong>. And we obviously embrace it with the masterful set of the Figures of the Descent from the Cross from Santa Maria de Ta\u00fcll<\/a><\/em>\u2013 second half of the 12th – 13th century. In this case, we establish the dialogue based on two interlinked axes. On the one hand, the theatrical use of these figures in the liturgical celebrations allows us to recover a set of contemporary performative proposals where the gesture of curing and supporting a sick or dead body of iconography and the Somateca<\/em> of the descent from the cross. Thus, thanks to the company of Nancy, Aimar and Jaime we put together the gesture of Maria and Josep d’Arimatea holding the body of Christ with the action Carrying<\/em> -1992- by Pepe Espali\u00fa, one of the graffiti of Keith Haring and some fragments of the dance piece, The touching<\/em> community<\/em> by Aimar P\u00e9rez, where similar gestures appear. If the figure of Christ in the set of Ta\u00fcll includes Joseph’s hand carved in his own body and therefore, stuck forever for the caring and the tenderness of sustaining, Espali\u00fa, Haring and P\u00e9rez Gal\u00ed resume that community of the affectionate touch that it had to generate to support, embrace and help those people affected by the disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, we decided to zoom in on the wound of Christ, both from the carnal hole of the wooden piece and from the scene where the Roman soldiers produce the wound of Sorpe’s set of paintings \u2013mid 12th<\/sup> century, which also dialogue in the rooms of the museum with the aforementioned descent. And we do so, first of all, from the dialogue with the action El tajo <\/em>(The cut) -1996- by \u00c1gueda Ba\u00f1\u00f3n, where the artist, after producing an incision on the collarbone, licks with the desire to nourish herself and establish an affirmative relationship with her own fluids affected by the virus. And secondly with the film, Carvaggio<\/em> -1886- which Jarman produced in the year he found out that he also carried the virus. This film reproduces in a heterodox way the narrative and the work of the Baroque painter around the incredulity of Saint Thomas. This scene, as well as the commentaries that Peggy Phelan dedicated to him in her essay, Morning Sex: public performing memoirs<\/em> inspired Aimar and Jaime for their participation in these rebellious views. The two creators remained with their eyes closed during the whole visit, which forced the attendees to take care of their presence, helping them and accompanying them throughout the tour. At the end of the visit, in the room presided over by The battle of Tetuan<\/em> -Maria Fortuny, 1863-1865, Aimar and Jaime established a dialogue based on the text of Phelan, in which they talk about the need for touching, as a proof of love. In fact, the artists ended up leaning on the bench prepared to contemplate the warlike painting, hidden under the black veil of one of them and accompanied by the song of Nina Simone Wild is the Wind<\/em>. In this way, the contents of religious roots or, in this case, colonial, of a considerable collection of pieces of the museum, were transformed into a Somateca<\/em> that invited dissident sensuality, to the reaffirmation of non-normative identities and to generate the community of the brave, sustained and tender touch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Love me, love me, love me, say you do. Let me fly away\nwith you. For my love is like the wind. And wild is the wind.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/Fig-7.jpg\")
<\/a><\/a>The iconography of the passion with an LGBTI viewpoint<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Related links<\/h3>\n\n\n\n