For some years we have used the OutAME umbrella for our projects in partnership with festivals and allies accross the Americas and the UK. On this page you can browse a yearly cartography of events, network-building and the works commissioned between 2015 and 2020. Today, they are part of the KUIR portfolio.
An artist-led evaluation of Outburst Americas Projects 2015-2021
With Support from
cartography | 2015
1. SERENDIPIDY
Belfast, Northern Ireland
OUTBURST Queer Arts Festival is a Registered Charity and not-for-profit initiative, dedicated to exploring and celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender stories and experiences through the Arts in Northern Ireland. Our programme aims to support, encourage and inspire local LGBT creativity, in addition to bringing the best in international queer Arts to the city of Belfast.
“It’s the people you meet serendipitously who you end up developing a connection with.”
(Ruth McCarthy, Artistic Director with Outburst Arts)
Ruth McCarthy speaking at Impact Hub Caracas – 2015
Abya Yala, Brazil
2. A SENSE OF THE LANDSCAPE
CARACAS, VENEZUELA | KINGSTON, JAMAICA
cartography | 2016
3. Now we are talking: New Connections
“After we came back home, connections started to happen.”
(Ruth McCarthy)
Abya Yala, Brazil
Renata Carvalho (Brazil) as Queen Jesus in Jo Clifford’s play
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
“A queer home for arts and activism in Buenos Aires”.
Lisa Kerner, founder of casaBrandon and director at FAQ – Festival de Arte Queer – Buenos Aires
casaBrandon was since its origins the celebration of divergence without privileges or VIP spaces, but always ridden with amorous opportunities through which to transit sexual diversity; the embodiment of a form of sensuality that they couldn’t yet call queer because the term didn’t exist in Argentina, but which they later adopted to talk about their revolution wherever they went. They were queer because, above all, they wanted to contaminate the image of diversity; they didn’t want to clean it but to make it virosic, so that it mutated into a form of beauty that transformed all bodies. From the early parties, they brought in the arts as a form of contamination.
“The arts offer a space of rupture, dialogue and transformation, which seems to me the only path to liberation”, said Jorgelina De simone, one of the co-founders of the Brandon alongside Lisa Kerner.”
Diego Terotrola
Susy Shock is one of the artists Out Ame has been working with in a sustained way. Seen by Ruth at Casa Brandon in 2016, she was later part of the Semana de Arte Trans in Uruguay, curated by Delfina Martinez and Leho de Sosa. In 2018 she was programmed by Risco Festival in Brazil. In 2019 she was one of the artists featured in the Americas Showcase during Outburst.
4. 1º Queer Arts Symposium
Belfast, nothern irelad
Simone Harris (Jamaica) “Shackled”, from The Tribe Exhibition
Simone Harris presents THE TRIBE at Outburst
Nadia Huggins (Trinidad and Tobago) “Is that a Buoy” From Caribbean Queer Visualities
Nadia at the exhibition
RENATA CARVALHO’S SPEECH AT OUTBURST FESTIVAL 2016
Photo Renata Carvalho and Natalia Mallo
cartography | 2017
5. 2º Queer Arts Symposium
Belfast, nothern irelad
MAKING NEW CONNECTIONS
Brian Solomon is an anishnaabe/canadian artist who joined the festival as a delegate and participated in the symposium. Later he would be included in RISCO Festival’s first edition’s programme as well as workshop facilitator at Trans Art Week in Uruguay in the same year.
Erica was also one of the delegates at the symposium in 2017, appointed by RISCO Festival. At that time she was running Aparelha Luzia, a centre for education, activism and arts with focus on the black kuir communities in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Two years after that, she became the first black trans person to be elected for a seat at the State Congress. Erica’s work at Congress has been outstanding with law bills that focus on equality, public health and safety for marginalised communities.
Photos Natalia, Leho and Lisa at Outburst making plan
“Our conversations are so powerful. We need to keep talking, we need to meet again.”
Ruth McCarthy
cartography | 2018
6. Reconnecting through Trans Arts
Montevideo, Uruguay
Ruth and Natalia at Semana de Arte Trans
Montevideo’s first Trans Art Week, curated by Delfina Martinez and Leho de Sosa (who had already participated at Outburst Festival as delegate e would soon become a collaborator) brought together artists from multiple languages (theatre, dance, photography, literature, music, visual arts) for the first time in a single programme, celebrating the contribution of the trans community and inaugurating an unprecedented space for socializing and reflection .
This event was the setting for the birth of the idea of the collective and the beginning of Outburst Americas’ network configuration. Trans art served as the context for countless reflections within the group, and to establish new connections that in the near future would become instances of co-curation and in the consolidation of an increasingly strengthened circuit.
3º Queer Arts Symposium
7. Taking Risks
São Paulo, Brazil
Risco Festival was born in 2018 in Sao Paulo and its creation was inspired by the work of the Outburst Americas collective and by the experiences and exchanges in queer arts curatiion developed collectively by the group. The Festival was another opportunity to meet and plan future actions, such as the first series of works by queer artists from the americas commissioned by the collective.
4º Queer Arts Encounter
CURATING AS GESTURE
Risco Festival hosted the 4º Quer Arts Encounter with the participation of Outburst Americas collective (FAQ, Casa Brandon, Semana de Arte Trans, Outburst Festival) + JerkOff Festival (France), Familia Stronger Collective, Susy Shock and local artists and collectives. The aim was to discuss the power of queer curating in times of censorship and baklashes in rights by the LGBTQIA+ Community.
cartography | 2019
KINGSTON, JAMAICA
CREATING AND CURATING SPACES was the first training programme delivered by Outburst Americas. It was meant to exhange ideas, knowledge and resources with the local queer arts scene and was produced by Simone Harris (360 Artists), who also curated the 1º Queer Arts showcase during the Beyond Homophobia / Navigating the State Conference – University of the West Indies.
MEXICO
CUMBRE TAJIN
Cumbre Tajin is a festival that celebrates the totonaca culture and legacy in the region of Vera Cruz Mexico. Ruth McCarthy visited the festival and connected with local queer artists who were part of the programme, linking indigenous cultural manifestation, popular parties, crafts and gastronomy for the first time including also a queer perspective.
BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND
EL ALTO
EL ALTO magazine cover, featuring jamaican artist and activist Emani Edwards
Published by the British Council in partnership with Outburst Festival, the magazine’s first issue focuses on themes of gender, identity and the arts. It builds on the last four years of collaboration with Outburst Queer Arts Festival, identifying and supporting producers, activists, artists, curators and projects around queer art in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, the US and Venezuela. The publication showcases some of the projects developed in the network, as well as some leading academic and artistic voices in this growing space. Edited by Natalia Mallo, Pablo Rosselló and Ruth McCarthy, and presented in Spanish and English, the magazine features a series of artist profiles and projects from 13 countries.
5º QUEER ARTS ENCOUNTER
In 2019 Outburst also promoted the 5º Queer Arts Encounter with guests from the Americas, Europe and Middle east. Discussions, exchange and network building.
Americas showcase featuring Susy Shock (Argentina), Dani Nega (Brazil), Ghana (Jamaica) and Ali Gua Gua (Mexico)
Dani Nega
cartography | 2020
The Whole World - pandemia
TRANSLATING QUEER
A research, reflection and creation project on the different translation processes involved in the exchange, production and circulation of Kuir / Queer arts. Developed and presented by Outburst, FAQ and RISCO festivals, it was a series of workshops discussing the translation of words, cultures and presence (the transcreation of ideas from analog to digital realms).
