Olivier Gay

Contents:

• OLIVIER GAY INTERR DIGN
• OLIVIER GAY ARCHECTURE
• HOMONORMATIVE ARCHECTURE & QUEER SPACE : THE EVOLUTN OF GAY BARS AND CLUBS MONTRéAL

OLIVIER GAY INTERR DIGN

Reactg to a perceived weakeng of the 1970s homosexual liberatn and lbian femist movements, the queer movement was ially also fuelled by renewed homophobia followg the begng of the AIDS epimic. The term was ed by Tera De Lretis her troductory say to the "Queer Theory: Lbian and Gay Sexuali" issue (1991) of the femist journal Differenc ( Lretis 1991) to scribe a radil rensirg of sexualy outsi the prevailg dichotomy of the heterosexual matrix, reference to Judh Butler’s term.

Emergg parallel to queer activism, but also spired by femism and reactg to genr studi and gay and lbian studi, philosophers, lerary theorists and historians such as Butler (1990), Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick (1990, 1985), and David Halper (Halper 1990), part spired by Michel Fouult’s work on sexualy (Fouult 1976-1984), opened up a new way of thkg about genr and sexual intifitn and performance, beyond inti (unrstood as tegori of dividuals) and acts ( this se sexual practic). It clus, among others, gay, lbian, bisexual, and transgenr people; normalizg inty tegori and movg away om radil activist movements. Thkg about how genr and sexualy play a role the analysis of the built environment is however far om homogeneo.

A first approach unrstands queer space as gay or lbian terrory marted om heteronormative terrory, as the physil maniftatn of a gay muny. The earlit approach, is exemplified by Manuel Castells’ much-ced study of the Castro district San Francis (Castells 1983) or Aaron Betsky’s well-known Queer Space: Archecture and Same-Sex Dire (1997), a study of spac ed and signed by (mostly) gay men. Others foc on specific buildgs, for example the discsn of gay or lbian bars by Barbara Weightman (1980) or Maxe Wolfe (1992) or the analysis of ho by Alice Friedman (1998), Timothy Rohan (1999) or Annmarie Adams (2010b).

OLIVIER GAY ARCHECTURE

This is also how “queer space” is often ed mastream archectural publitns, as monstrated for example Archecture magaze’s choice of photographs focg on ers to document a 2002 feature on the San Francis Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgenr Communy Center (Ward 2002, 72-81), assumg that rears will associate the prence of ers perceived as gay, lbian, bisexual or trans (through their clothg styl and physil appearance) wh a “queer archecture”.

This unrstandg of queer space also manifts self attempts at scribg sential “queer sign” characteristics, for example Jonathan Boorste’s (1995) intifitn of a “queer sign athetics” that he believ is shared by a number of historil and ntemporary signers and archects he believ to be gay, th assigng sential characters to a diverse landspe of buildgs and urban spac simply bee of their signers’ sexual orientatn.

While this approach allows for a still too rare discsn of the lks between sexualy and space, do not challenge the assumptns that most other plac are fully straight or that queer space n only exist wh gay enclav. It also ignor that queer space existed before gay or lbian neighbourhoods appeared (see for example Chncey 1994, Mumford 1997, Houlbrook 2005). This approach is sometim broaned by nsirg queer space as the ntted “other” between lbian or gay space and straight space (Whtle 1994, Kenney 2001), g queer as a broar visn of non-heteronormative inti.

HOMONORMATIVE ARCHECTURE & QUEER SPACE : THE EVOLUTN OF GAY BARS AND CLUBS MONTRéAL

This approach is prent importantly early wrgs geography that posn the visibily of queer sex acts, both gay and lbian, as creatg queer space (Bell et al.

Elmgreen & Dragset, Memorial to the Homosexuals Persecuted unr Nazism (2008). The Memorial to the Homosexuals Persecuted unr Nazism (2008) Berl, signed by artists Elmgreen & Dragset, illtrat this by transformg the language ed by archect Peter Eisenman the sign of the neighborg Memorial to the Murred Jews of Europe (2005), changg s sle and openg to create a closer relatnship wh the human body (Vallerand 2014a). Buildg upon femism and gay and lbian studi, queer theory fi inty tegorizatn.

Queer theory n th help move away om earlier unrstandgs of queer space as strictly gay-oriented spac towards a more clive approach that unrstands queer space as performative, as pendg importantly on ntext and relatnaly s challenge to both hetero- and homonormativy.