Queers on the Move, year 1, Vancouver Queer Film Festival, 2003
Queers on the Move: The Make Friends Project is a public performance work that deals humorously with representation, visibility and the acknowledging and making of queer history.
While performing a choreographed cheer to an original song that jubilantly shouts "Make Friends!", Toni Latour and Rina Larsson poignantly entertain crowds at venues ranging from movie theatres to media festivals to the Calgary Stampede! Once the performance ends, they offer audiences free homemade mini cupcakes topped with pink icing, a flag featuring the name of the project, and a reminder to "Make a Friend Today!"
Queers on the Move, years 1and 2, Vancouver Queer Film Festival, 2003 and 2004
Latour originally conceived of the project as a response to an invitation from FUSE magazine (Toronto) to develop a series of public performances in Vancouver that would later be translated to the printed page. (The project was published in FUSE in the Fall of 2003). From there, the piece grew into a community building project that has resulted in four different incantations. Through changing t-shirt slogans and song lyrics, each performance is tailored to its location and audience.
Queers on the Move, year 1, Vancouver Queer Film Festival, 2003
The first performances took place at Vancouver ’s 2003 Out on Screen Film Festival. That year, the festival guide opened with a statement by director of programming Michael Barrett, who said: “As the state of the world seems more and more uncertain and we become more isolated from one another, many of us are seeking refuge in a place of community – a place to share our joys and concerns with one another”. This statement was literally played out as theatres became host to a festival of “celebratory…life-affirming queer images and representations” including two cupcake wielding artists out to make friends.
Queers on the Move, year 1, Vancouver Queer Film Festival, 2003
Since then, the friendly duo adapted the performance for another year at Out on Screen (2004), the Signal + Noise Festival at Video In, Vancouver (2004), and most recently at The Epcor Centre during the 2005 Calgary Stampede. The Calgary performance was sponsored by The New Gallery that also hosted an exhibition of Queers on the Move.
Queers on the Move, The Calgary Stampede, 2005
Queers on the Move takes its cue from projects like Lesbian National Parks & Services by artists Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan, and The Specialists: Performing the Heterosexual Couple by Judy Radul. These public art projects examine constructs of sexuality and the notion that performance is integral to everyday assumptions. Queers on the Move is also inspired and informed by filmmakers like Aerlyn Weissman who said “My project is to make gay history and to make history gay”. This quote preceded her battle with a censoring British Columbia film board over whether or not her documentary Little Sisters VS Big Brother could be screened at the 2002 Vancouver Queer Film Festival.
Queers on the Move exhibition, The New Gallery, Calgary, AB, 2005
As Little Sisters continues to battle censorship, Latour and Larsson continue to encourage and support queer performance art on Canadian streets.
Make Friends!
Queers on the Move, year 1, Vancouver Queer Film Festival, 2003
View video documentation of Queers on the Move: The Make Friends Project (2003)