Pablo Andres, from the series William Freeman, you can’t hold an angel (2017)
Intro
William Freeman – you can’t hold an angel is an exhibition by Chilean artist and dissident Pablo Andres (b. 1985), who is currently seeking asylum in Denmark.
The exhibition takes a closer look at conditions for LGBTQ asylum seekers from the Global South and maps the artist’s encounter with homophobia in the Danish asylum process and with racism in the Western gay community.
The exhibition
The exhibition takes a closer look at conditions for LGBTQ asylum seekers from the Global South, who flee to the West thinking that there is freedom and safety for gender and sexual minorities there. The exhibition revolves around the queer figure William Freeman (William the free man), who in the photo series William Freeman, you can’t hold an angel (2017) jumps out the window of his room in the asylum center wearing only tights and a set of black angel wings.
Pablo Andres, from the series William Freeman, you can’t hold an angel (2017)
The series brings to mind Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographic documentation of the male figure and queer life in 1970s and 1980s New York City and leaves it up to the viewer to decide whether William is about to commit suicide or if he is showing a way out of the asylum camp’s hell.
Video directed by Habib Mohseni
Pablo Andres, Untitled (2018)
Pablo Andres, Chile on my back (2016)
With photography, video, collage, and objects, Andres examines how vulnerable queer men from the Global South are lured to the West by idealized representations of the West as ’queer Heaven,’ only to find a refugee politics that does not always grant them protection and a LGBTQ community where colored queer men often encounter sexual racism from white queer men.
About Pablo Andres
Pablo Andres was born in Chile 1985: My transition is the consequence of a lifetime under systematic persecution and my rebellion against any oppression to my gender identity. I have a diploma in art, but in my case art came together with my instinct to survive and be safe. To be an artist is to be like the fool, the card with no number in the Tarot.
Practical info & Education program
The exhibition runs from June 1 – August 25, 2018 (summer closed in July) and is curated by CAMP's directors Frederikke Hansen and Tone Olaf Nielsen.
It is accompanied by a printed exhibition guide that can be purchased in CAMP or downloaded here from May 26. The guide contains an introduction to the works in the exhibition and an interview with Pablo Andres conducted by Sudanese architect and queer activist Eddie Esmail.
During the opening, on June 1 from 7:30–8 pm, Pablo Andres will give an artist talk and do a performance. Free admission. All are welcome!
CAMP also offers a performative guided tour in the exhibition by the artist every Saturday from 3–4 pm (last Saturday of the month closed). Admission 20 DKK. For dates, see the special events calendar.
Pablo Andres' show is the first in CAMP's new exhibition format CAMP open! This is a format for smaller exhibitions curated by CAMP’s curators that is able to respond promptly to artistic and political developments and to show less established names. CAMP open! is designed to promote emerging artists among new citizens with refugee or immigrant background.
The exhibition is generously supported by Det Obelske Familiefond / Statens Kunstfond / Foreningen Roskilde Festival.
