Queering the MNAR European Art Gallery

Introduction

Traditional art museums in Romania, including national museums of contemporary art, actively avoid a critical discussion of methodological aspects of a queer perspective in interpreting, exhibiting, and organizing museum collections, preserving museum’s conservatory approaches in supporting “heteronormative” narratives that consolidate heterosexuality as a norm within social and cultural life. There is a need to investigate what non-normative or queer relations exist around art museum displays and collections, rethinking them through and with (de)colonial and other historical entanglements while not simply dwelling in the past but instead making connections to our present and futures. There are no queering strategy to make their collection more representative of queer people, or better represent gender and identity-related diversity. Attention should be give: queer should not be understood merely as a credible practice for museums that are officially labeled “gay” such as the Schwules Museum* in Berlin. This would be just the old practice of demarcation and segregation.
We ask ourselves:

• Is queer curating something missing from the general curating practice, not just about sexuality, but more broadly a social aesthetics through which we might rethink society?
• Are queer artists equally and/or correctly represented in museum collections?
• Are the museums descriptive texts and brochures related to the works in their collections sensitive enough to queer and identity issues?

Funding transparency:

This research has been made possible through an Individual Mobility 2025-2026 funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union and implemented by Goethe-Institut. This publication was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union.