Our Exquisite Corpse

The waiting times for transgender care in the Netherlands are immense. The average waiting time for an intake appointment with a psychologist to receive a diagnosis of gender incongruence is 2 years. This means that treatment has not yet begun, but first, it is examined whether you qualify for specialized care. At the gender team of the UMCG, the waiting time in March 2023 was 30 months. To draw attention to this issue, the queer arts and culture platform The Pink Cube is launching the ongoing participatory project Our Exquisite Corpse during Avondblik.

This project gives shape to these endless waiting times. The name comes from the cadavre exquis, a poem or drawing where everyone contributes a part to come together to a, often incomprehensible, end result. Our Exquisite Corpse is such a cadavre exquis, but time-bound.

Everyone is welcome to contribute one or more tiles to a meters-long quilt. You keep track of how long it takes you. These can be seconds, minutes, or hours, as long as you want. Every contribution counts in our collective effort because everything is added together. Until we have reached 1,314,900 minutes. 21,900 hours. 912 days. 130 weeks. 30 months.

To place the participatory work in context, founders of The Pink Cube, art historians Arlo van Lierop and Iris Rijnsewijn, will give a talk on activist queer art at the Blikopener Festival. How have queer artists used their work in history to increase awareness? How has art been used to bring about social change? How has art played a role in improving care for the queer community? Discover it during Avondblik and become part of the change.