![\"Poster:](\"http:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/homosexuality_ies_2015.jpg\")
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The exhibition \u201cHomosexualit_ies\u201d will be shown from 13 May to 4 September, 2016 at the LWL \u2013 Museum f\u00fcr Kunst und Kultur in M\u00fcnster, Domplatz 10, 48143 M\u00fcnster.<\/em><\/p>\n Just before the opening of the exhibition “Homosexualit_ies” at the LWL-Museum f\u00fcr Kunst und Kultur in M\u00fcnster, Westphalia on 12 May 2016, the German railroad company Deutsche Bahn AG decided that posters for this exhibition may not be displayed on any train stations.<\/p>\n The poster featuring Heather Cassils was seen everywhere in Berlin in 2015, when the original show opened at the Deutsche Historische Museum (National History Museum) and the Schwules Museum*. It was displayed in all neighbourhoods, streets, in train stations and especially within Berlin\u2019s S-Bahn system, which \u2013 ironically \u2013 belong to the Deutsche Bahn. Now, the office Media & Buch, which is responsible for the approval of advertisement for the Deutsche Bahn AG, has decided that the poster is \u201csexualized\u201d and \u201csexist\u201d and therefore does not conform with the guidelines of the German Council of Advertisement (Deutscher Werberat).<\/p>\n Confronted with this somewhat contradictory behavior, the Deutsche Bahn replied that the poster must have accidently \u201cslipped through\u201d in 2015, and that the German public has meanwhile become more sensitive about \u201csexism\u201d, especially after the incidents of New Year\u2019s Eve in Cologne. This is what they told the German gay magazine \u201cM\u00e4nner\u201d in a short statement, confirming their general position in this case. As a consequence, the Deutsche Bahn has instructed its advertisement company Str\u00f6er not to allocate advertisement spaces in train stations to \u201cHomosexualit_ies\u201d. Str\u00f6er has followed this request and offered the LWL-Museum alternative advertisement spaces in the region. The LWL-Museum has accepted We, the Schwules Museum*, on the other hand consider the allegation and the resulting advertisement ban wrong and inappropriate. Cassil\u2019s work is not a breach of the guidelines of the German Council of Advertisement as it neither reduces him_her to his_her sexuality\u201d nor degrades him_her by depicting him_her nude, nor is the poster \u201cpornographic\u201d. While we acknowledge that the poster has been subject to controversy among the gaylesbian community in Berlin, that discussion revolved around politics of representation, as numerous gays and lesbians criticized the poster did not represent the \u201caverage\u201d gay and lesbian person \u201cproperly\u201d But there were never any accusations of \u201csexism\u201d. Dr. Birgit Bosold, one of the curators of the exhibitions says: \u201cWe want to show that the discrimination of homosexual people is directly linked to gender norms, which are automatically assigning a specific sexual identity to everyone and, at the same time, a sexual desire exclusively towards the \u2018other\u2019 sex.\u201d<\/p>\n It is interesting that the Deutsche Bahn AG has no problems showing people – with nudity – in advertisements when they conform the heterosexual norms. Yet an image that obviously questions such norms is being \u201ccensored\u201d and considered unacceptable for public display. In the context of the current social backlash and the strengthening of rightwing conservative forces in Germany (and Europe) this decision is a fatal \u2013 and highly problematic \u2013 signal.<\/p>\n Artwork above right: Advertisement: Homage to Benglis, part of the larger body of work CUTS: A Traditional Sculpture, 2011. Image courtesy of Heather Cassils and Ronald Feldman, Fine Art, New York. \u00a9 Heather Cassils and Robin Black 2011.<\/em><\/p>\n Yesterday afternoon, [Tuesday May 12], the Schwules Museum* was informed by their partner organization LWL-Museum f\u00fcr Kunst und Kultur in M\u00fcnster that the German railroad company<\/p>\n Deutsche Bahn AG revised its ban of the poster for the exhibition \u201cHomosexualit_ies\u201d. This poster features Canadian trans* artist and activist Heather Casills. It may be displayed in train stations in Germany, after the Deutsche Bahn had originally decided against this. We, the Schwules Museum*, view this turn-around skeptical, because of the consequences of the original ban for the LWL-Museum. Also, we find the confusing and contradictory communications of Deutsche Bahn AG problematic.<\/p>\n In principal, we are glad that the Deutsche Bahn AG is no longer considering the poster\u201csexualized\u201d or sexist\u201d, and we are grateful for the great support \u2013 also internationally \u2013 we received in our own fight against the Deutsche Bahn during the last days. We see this incident as another argument for our museum\u2019s mission to make LGBTIQ history more visible and fight for such visibility and public acceptance.<\/p>\n But the incident is far from over. Because of the temporary ban, the advertisement company Str\u00f6er \u2013 which is managing the Deutsche Bahn AG ad spaces \u2013 has already rented out the original ad spaces to other clients. Regardless of Deutsche Bahn AG\u2019s new decision to allow the display of the posters in their train stations, the \u201cHomosexualit_ies\u201d poster will not be seen prominently in any such station in Germany in the near future, because all the ad space is already taken. The Deutsche Bahn has not offered any form of compensation for this, yet.<\/p>\n The entire handling of the incident by the Deutsche Bahn AG has left us with a bitter aftertaste. While the official twitter account of Deutsche Bahn AG argued that the poster was deemed \u201csexist\u201d or \u201crevealing\u201d just yesterday at 11:38 am, barely five hours later we were informed that all concerns were now cleared after a discussion of DB\u2019s press department with the LWL-Museum. This, among other confusing statements, raises the suspicion that the Deutsche Bahn AG only changed its policy to avoid a public debate and damage to its image as a state-owned company. Since the posters cannot be displayed to promote at least the opening of the exhibition, the sudden turn-around of Deutsche Bahn AG is little consolation.<\/p>\n Because this entire incident has tackled very broad and important topics of visibility, awareness and acceptance of LGBTIQ in Germany, we at the Schwules Museum* are upholding our invitation for an open discussion with the officials of Deutsche Bahn AG, either in M\u00fcnster or in Berlin.<\/p>\n Must See Exhibition in Berlin – ‘Homosexuality-ies’<\/a> The exhibition \u201cHomosexualit_ies\u201d will be shown from 13 May to 4 September, 2016 at the LWL \u2013 Museum f\u00fcr Kunst und Kultur in M\u00fcnster, Domplatz 10, 48143 M\u00fcnster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[1678],"class_list":["post-15063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-queer-art","tag-cassils"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Poster for \u201eHomosexualit_ies” exhibition may not be displayed in German train stations<\/h2>\n
![\"Advertisement:](\"http:\/\/www.femininemoments.dk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/HeatherCassils-225x300.jpg\")
The poster shows the work “Advertisement: Hommage to Benglis”, part of the series “CUTS: A Traditional Sculpture” by Canadian artist Heather Cassils<\/a>. He_she is shown with a bare chest and waist, red painted lips, nipple piercings and a jock strap. As performance art, the project explicitly questions gender norms and represents a broad variety of possible forms of sexuality, which is one of the intentions of the exhibition \u201cHomosexualit_ies\u201d, curated by Birgit Bosold, Doroth\u00e9e Brill and Detlef Weitz. The exhibition is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Cultural Foundation of the Federal States of Germany.<\/p>\n
\nthis offer.<\/p>\nTurn-around of Deutsche Bahn AG regarding \u201csexist\u201d poster for the exhibition \u201eHomosexualit_ies\u201c in M\u00fcnster<\/h2>\n
Related Links<\/h2>\n
\nBerlin: Homosexuality_ies<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"