Identity Inks: Queer Print Open Call Showcase | Ignorantka Galeria Czynna as part of the “Tru tu tu” action

Often relegated to the sidelines, queer culture can usually only manifest itself in specific places or events. Despite the increasing visibility of LGBTQIA+ people, in Poland it can rarely be experienced on its own, in public spaces. Together with the Łódź-based collective y2gay, we will try to bring it symbolically out of the periphery of everyday life directly onto the city streets.

As part of “Identity Inks”, an open call for screen-printed prints, we will select the most interesting works showing not only the emancipatory nature of queer culture, but also its visual richness and individual takes on queer identities.

During the vernissage at café-club Ignorantka, where the selected works will be presented in large format, we will collectively transfer some of them onto our clothes and textiles using screen printing techniques. In this way, through democratic participation in the city’s visual culture, queer identities will more clearly enter the public sphere and become part of the city’s cultural landscape.

The activity is part of the “Tru tu tu” action organised by the Galeria Czynna during the Festival of Many Cultures. Its aim is to support independent initiatives and places that create culture all year round through their often altruistic activities. The people who run Galeria Czynna (Ogórek, Polak and Załuski) felt that the invitation to participate in the festival was a great opportunity to support the Ignorantka and the Łódź Women’s Trail.

You can send your work until 15th September to barignorantka [at] gmail.com. The day after, together with Maszyna, Kuba Gałązka (y2gay), Łukasz Ogórek and Marcin Polak (Galeria Czynna) and Justyna Banaszczyk (Ignorantka), we will choose the graphics that we will present at the vernissage in the form of screen prints and those that we will print together that day on your clothes at Ignorantka.

Send artwork in PNG, PDF or TIFF format in a minimum size of 707×500 mm, 300 dpi, on one layer (we print in one colour).