The Labrisz Lesbian Association was founded in 1999, making this its twenty-fifth year. This timespan is significant for any community. But if we consider that this is the life span of a women’s LGBTQ rights organization since the thirty years following Hungary’s political transition, its weight becomes even more profound.
It is worth reflecting on these years because we now have something to look back on. However, this historical summary is by no means self-serving or insular. It speaks to lesbian and LGBTQ history in Hungary during this period and addresses much more: the history of political change, the desire and experience of freedom, and the story of active, responsible action for it. It reflects on minority status, marginalization, womanhood, the emancipation, autonomy, and strength of women as a minority, and on the operation, achievements, failures, and perseverance of civil initiatives and grassroots communities. It demonstrates the unifying power of openness, connection, acceptance, and attentiveness.
This historical and art exhibition, opening now at 2B Gallery, was created with these ideas in mind, using materials from the Labrisz archives. Various media—letters, zines, analog photography, video, audio recordings, literary texts, oral history, or more precisely, herstory—are accompanied by artworks that connect associatively to the content or form of each document, highlighting its multiple layers of interpretation.
The documents were selected from the Association’s archive by Anna Borgos, Dorottya Rédai, Réka Szűcs, and Mária Takács, members of Labrisz’s herstory working group.