Like most events this year, the Tom of Finland Art & Culture Festival is likely on the internet for its 2020 installment. The 25th incarnation of the pageant coincides with the centenary of the famous gay erotica artist.
The competition is both equally a celebration of Touko Laaksonen’s incredible contribution to pop culture and visual culture, and a essential option for the queer community to occur collectively at an unusually isolating period of time in record.
“As a community, we have confronted so substantially: experiencing the devastation of HIV/AIDS, preventing the rampant censorship of how we produce and convey ourselves, and now protecting connections in the course of terrific social alter and COVID-19,” stated competition co-founder Durk Dehner. “Being able to occur with each other at this moment is so very important for us.”
As a substitute of getting place at Tom of Finland Home, the landmarked bungalow in Echo Park where by the festival is traditionally held, it will get put on a custom made web-site this yr. This digital Pageant, which kicks off this Friday, aims to guidance artists by delivering them an avenue to existing and sell their operates.
The Competition will feature artist “booths” and digital gatherings during the weekend. Panel activities consist of, “Background of Leather-based and Fetish Talk with Durk Dehner and special friends” and “Overlaps: Art + Identity + Activism with Ron Athey, Cassils, and Rafa Esparza.”
“This pageant is not only a platform championing queer artwork and queer artists, but also a accumulating put the place all queer communities can arrive collectively,” explained Rubén Esparza, Pageant Coordinator and Founder of the Queer Biennial. Attendees have the chance to connect with artists, see performances, watch video clip installations, attract, and pay attention to panel conversations, and celebrate all matters LGBTQ+, erotic, taboo, and fringe.
The festival runs from December 11 to 13 at tomoffinland.org/artfair.
For a further diver into all factors Tom of Finland, read our retrospective on 100 yrs of electric power, corruption, and jizz.