By Pilar Passamonte
The new work, exhibited in the “ Magic in Vienna ” exhibition at Museums Quartier Wien , addresses issues of great relevance and resonance today.
Pinchiero is interested in deconstructing common patterns in historiography and the representation of the present, especially those dictated by the male gaze.
“ I wanted to bring together different moments in history with a variety of aesthetics and expressions of sexuality. As a queer artist, I want to offer a visual narrative in which binary and heteronormative assumptions about gender and expressions of love are questioned, and many manifestations of love are celebrated ,” explains the artist in the curatorial text of the exhibition.
The title “Magic in Vienna” refers to the romance novel of the same name written by Betty Neels, published in 1985. Romance novels are aimed at a broad heterosexual female audience and create a fantasy world.
The genre is often characterised by patriarchal norms and heteronormativity and the book covers are designed accordingly. The artist places figures from such covers alongside images of historical sculptures from the collection and the façade of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, making the idea of “queer magic in Vienna” visible, explains the curator of the exhibition, Verena Kaspar .
