Press Release
Homotopia 2015 ART = LIFE
30 October – 1 December
Throughout November and in cultural institutions across Liverpool, Homotopia will be presenting yet
another packed programme of art and culture reflecting the LGBT experience. The theme of this
year’s festival is ART = LIFE.
Festival Director Gary Everett explained;
“If silence equals death as it did at the start of the AIDS crisis then we believe art equals life. Art is a
joyous expression of all that makes us human and for lesbians, gays and Trans people who continue
to be marginalised, criminalised and persecuted around the world, art is often their only means of
self-expression.”
Although officially running through from 30 October to World Aids Day on 1 December Homotopia is
also supporting two trailblazing events that open in September and October.
Photography
VUKANI/RISE is an exhibition by Zanele Muholi a photographer whose images exploring gender, race
and sexuality in relation to South African society were nominated for this year’s Deutsche Borse
prize. The exhibition, supported by Homotopia, opens at the Open Eye Gallery on 18 September
and runs until 29 November. http://www.homotopia.net/festival-item/zanele-muholivukanirise/#.VfHGd_lViko
Heritage
Transformation: One Man’s Cross-Dressing Wardrobe represents another collaboration for
Homotopia with National Museums Liverpool – this time at the Walker Art gallery. Opening on 24
October this exhibition will be the first of its kind in a British museum and celebrates the personal
historic dress collection of Peter Farrer. The exhibition runs until 2017.
http://www.homotopia.net/festival-item/transformation-one-mans-cross-dressingwardrobe/%23.VfHG0vlViko
Art Installation
Alien Sex Club (30 Oct – 1 Dec at Camp & Furnace) is a major multimedia project by British artist
John Walter, which explores the relationship between visual culture and HIV today. The exhibition
consists of a large-scale installation based on the shapes of cruise mazes, found in sex clubs and gay
saunas. It comprises sculpture, painting, video, performance and installation. Visitors are immersed
in a multisensory world in which they can watch videos and live performances, get lost in the maze
and have a drink in the performance bar. Using hospitality, fortune-telling, comedy and the aesthetic
of carnivals and festivals Alien Sex Club introduces issues to a wide audience and makes the subject
palatable, interesting and fun. The project is part of Walter’s PhD and his research in epidemiology is
grounded in a collaboration with Dr Alison Rodger, Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in
Infectious Diseases and HIV at University College London.
Alien Sex Club will involve artists, activists and HIV specialists, clinical academics and scientists in
collaborations for a public programme of talks and performances that will provide audiences with a
new vocabulary for understanding and talking about HIV and the factors contributing to its
transmission. http://www.homotopia.net/festival-item/alien-sex-club/#.VfHHk_lViko
Live Performance
The programme of live performance based at the Unity Theatre begins on 3 November with 3
scratch performances of new work from Keddy Sutton with Andrew J Norris, Ashleigh Owen and
Jamal Gerald. http://www.homotopia.net/festival-item/scratch-and-see/#.VfHHwvlViko
Then for 3 nights starting on 5 November Nick Phillips, formerly of Bloolips, presents his camp and
glamorous autobiographical musical review Ecce Homo! http://www.homotopia.net/festivalitem/ecce-homo/#.VfHIL_lViko
On Friday 6 November the lesbians roll into town in the shape of The Butch Monologues a powerful
and humorous collection of stories exploring sexuality, vulnerability and desire taken from
interviews with butches, masculine women and transmen living world-wide.
http://www.homotopia.net/festival-item/the-butch-monologues/#.VfHIcflViko
Commissioned by Contact theatre, winner of Brighton Fringe LGBTQ Award 2015 and created in
collaboration with Olivier Award-winning director Mark Whitelaw Big Girl’s Blouse on 7 November is
Kate O’Donnell’s story of her path to becoming a woman. http://www.homotopia.net/festivalitem/big-girls-blouse/#.VfHIqvlViko
Hopping across town to the Bluecoat on 20 November for a Homotopia commission Scandinavia
Has Been Good To Me, a multi-media solo show from transgender performance artist Mandy
Romero. This completes the autobiographical trilogy begun in 2010 with ‘Stevenage’.
http://www.homotopia.net/festival-item/scandinavia-has-been-good-to-me/#.VfHJovlViko
Literature
Polari – as part of the national literary tour authors and hosts Paul Burston and VG Lee bring Diana
Souhami, Dr Ellen Storm, Andrew McMillan and Gerry Potter to the Unity on 4 November.
http://www.homotopia.net/festival-item/polari/#.VfHH-_lViko
Returning to literature on Friday 13 November Sarah Waters comes to the Unity to discuss her
Baileys shortlisted novel The Paying Guests. http://www.homotopia.net/festival-item/sarahwaters/#.VfHJFflViko
Dance
Physical theatre company PanicLab explore masculinity, competition and pain thresholds in their
new show Theseus Beefcake on 10 & 11 November. See Joseph Mercier and Jordan Lennie test
their friendship and themselves with wrestling and mixed martial arts thrown in!
http://www.homotopia.net/festival-item/thesus-beefcake/#.VfHI4PlViko
Brazilian choreographer and performer Jean Abreu explores the interior workings of his body in
Blood, a piece originally commissioned by the Royal Opera House, inspired by Gilbert & George
and featuring projections of microscopic details of blood, semen, urine and sweat from their series
The Fundamental Pictures – Unity Theatre 12 November. http://www.homotopia.net/festivalitem/blood/#.VfHJO_lViko
Comedy/Satire
On 14 November Homotopia favourite David Hoyle teams up with Bourgeois & Maurice to
celebrate the beige and mediocre in Middle of the Road. After wasting years of their lives battling
the system, they are turning their backs on all that weirdo queer sh*t and toeing the party line!
http://www.homotopia.net/festival-item/middle-of-the-road/#.VfHJaPlViko
The grand finale of Homotopia’s live performances this year is Panti Bliss at the Epstein Theatre on
21 November. Panti landed herself in the middle of a media storm christened ‘Pantigate’ that
rocked Ireland in 2014. Soon after, she became a Youtube sensation when a speech she made about
homophobia, described as “the most eloquent Irish speech” in 200 years by Irish Times columnist
Fintan O’Toole, went viral, was broadcast around the world, debated in parliament and even
remixed by the Pet Shop Boys – sparking a powerful conversation about equality and feeding into
Ireland's recent Marriage Equality referendum success. High Heels in Low Places is her riotous
stand-up show about life after ‘Pantigate’.
Follow the show links for more copy and downloadable images are here
http://www.homotopia.net/press/#.VfK0BvlViko
ENDS
Press contact; Louise Muddle 07840 759 467 loumuddle@gmail.com