Embodying Queerness: Visual curation and the making of queer space at the “Dialogues” queer film festival, Kolkata

“Dialogues”, the LGBTQ film and video festival, considered India’s oldest queer film festival, has been held annually in Kolkata during the winter months since 2007. Beyond examining the festival’s role in fostering community sentiment through collective film viewing, the article critically studies the visual logistics of its curation in recent years. Through a close reading of the festival’s curatorial initiative, the work engages with installations, artworks, posters, cut-outs and banners adorning the festival site, thereby mapping their contribution to asserting queer visibility. Echoing Michael Warner’s notion of “counterpublic” and N. Bourriaud’s “relational aesthetics”, the work aims to understand the queer film festival site as a space for dissent and spatial recognition, while examining the role of installations stationed at the festival site and their potential for registering queer visibility and for making dissent and solidarity. Acknowledging past scholarly discourses that have seen queer film festival space through the lens of cultural activism and community formation, this work examines the festival’s curatorial approach while assessing the role of installations, artworks and posters in constructing queer public space. Through a close reading of these visual formations centred on the festival site, the research demonstrates how the spatial and visual organisation contributes effectively to the making of a queer public sphere. Methodologically, the research relies heavily on personal visits and interpretative analysis of artworks and the curated space, while referring to existing theoretical frameworks to substantiate the readings and arguments. Using these approaches, the research seeks to understand the role of installations, artworks, and other visual formations in making Dialogues an active spatial and cultural space through which queer presence is produced, visualised, registered, and negotiated in the city of Kolkata.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Art history, Heritage safeguarding, Algorithmic analysis, Digital humanities.