Moving lesbians – Ditte Wessels

Video (3:32): Moving lesbians – Ditte Wessels by Atria Kennisinstituut, Holland.

The series Moving lesbians is based on the lives of lesbians, which greatly contributed to the visibility and emancipation of lesbian women in the Netherlands since the 1960s. The portrayed women are Gon Buurman, photographer; Anja van Kooten Niekerk the first female director of COC Nederland; Ditte Wessels, artist and featured in 1998 travelling exhibition Lesbian ConneXion/s; Evelien Eshuis, politician, board member Schorerstichting; Ligya Wachter founder of Black Orchid and Mil Colores.

About Ditte Wessels (1937)

Ditte Wessels studied in 1989 at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Arnhem, Netherlands. The central theme of her creative practice is an exploration of her own identity as a lesbian. Questions like: ‘To what extent is there a lesbian identity?’ and ‘Is there such a thing as Lesbian Art?’ play an important role in photography and her self portraits. She makes masked but also vulnerable self portraits. Ditte has mainly exhibited her works in gay and lesbian circles, her works was for example including the travelling phototography exhibition “Lesbian ConneXion/s” (1998). She has also presented her works in the lgbt Villa Lila, Nijmegen and at lesbian festivals and galleries in Brussels, Paris and Berlin.