Date: Thu, 09 Jun 94 11:34:50 GMT From: Mattias Duyves EUROPRIDE EXHIBITION MY FIRST QUEER WORLD ATLAS Wednesday through Sunday 22 June - 3 July 14.00-24.00 Free day entree 14.00 - 20.00. Entrance Marnixstraat 409 Night entree 20.00 - 24.00. Entrance Lijnbaansgracht 234a During Europride 1994 in Amsterdam, in the Melkweg Arts Galery near central square Leidseplein, you are invited for the exhibition 'My First Queer WorldAtlas'. 'My First Queer WorldAtlas' is an exhibition by Mike and Saverio Confusione showing a series of gay and lesbian maps of the world. The slogan: See the world as you like it..on maps you will like. In the Arts Galery in the Melkweg, the very first versions of these maps will be on display in the second week of Europride. From this initial version participants in several places of the world will work out in a later stage a final version which will be released in 1998, on the occasion of Gay Games 1998. During the exhibition visitors can contribute to the final result by giving their own suggestions. Just imagine a series of homo-maps of towns and countries in all parts of the world, coming to life on an artists' drawing board, inviting you to take a look at the growing veriety of gay and lesbian life throughout the world. 'My First Queer WorldAtlas' fits right into a very old Amsterdam tradition. As early as the seventeenth century, in its so-called Golden Age, Amsterdam provided Europe with a new perspective on the world, as well as the world with a perspective on Europe. Maps were created that were not only geographically correct, but also richly illustrated, giving wide open panoramas on unknown societies, their customs, towns and landscapes. These handmade works of art were designed to stimulate the imagination and broaden the knowledge of its contemporaries. The atlases of Hondius, Mercator and the Blaeu family brought far away places nearer, made the invisible visible and guided isolated communities into a new world. The illustrated atlases of the Golden Age are showcases of human curiosity and tolerance. These books were far ahead of their own time and their charms survive till this day. Sexual preference is a source of the widest variatons in lifestyles. The emergence of all sorts of gay and lesbian communities all over the world asks for new maps. Just as the illustrated atlases of the Golden age, these maps need to release our imagination, challenge our fantasy and broaden our knowledge. My First Queer WorldAtlas does just that. My First Queer WorldAtlas is a beautifully decorated fingerprint of the many influences of gay and lesbian life all over the world. The exhibition is a initiative of the ALBUM AMSTERDAM Foundation, under encouragement by the municipality of Amsterdam. The maps have been created in the studios of Mike and Saverio Confusione, two European artists living in Paris. --------------------------------