In this new exhibition, CANCELLED WORLD TOUR the artist Rasmus Raphaëlle Östebro reimagines Whose Museum as a backstage dressing room and hypothetical stage for their extended persona, Belle from Hell. Working with abstracted strategies originating from drag, the artist creates a spatial staging that surrounds and connects ephemeral performative elements with parts of the Whose Museum collection. The transformation of the museum becomes the setting for a series of performances, and also allows passersby to gaze in through the windows, turning the space into a vitrine shimmering with potentiality. When the door opens visitors are welcome to come inside and interact with the exhibition.

The installation can be viewed in relation to the ideas of the late queer theorist José Esteban Muñoz; who connects the dismissive notion of queerness as “just a phase” that is temporary, to the subcultural “stage” in punk clubs and gay bars. Muñoz politicises these places illuminating how they also function as a stage where one rehearses their subjectivity for utopian futures. Östebro extends this thinking through their own practice which investigates the shifting power relations between a performer and their spectator in different performative situations. They use the stage to place the body within a choreographic context, using mimetic repetition and citation in order to reveal the construction of identity.

Cancelled World Tour is a place of rest. Belle from Hell’s dressing room provides a moment where something else, that is not yet here, has the opportunity to arise. The scene includes a vanity table ornamented with props, artworks and objects from the collection. Each of them exists with palpable history and are open to being touched, examined, reinterpreted and reimagined by the audience. Östebro's belief in the power of presence and existence within parallel universes is freeing. They approach play and fantasy through strong, flowy, sharp but gentle movements. In the artist’s Last Performance Ever they introduce Belle from Hell to the city as perhaps a gift from their prolific collective self, leaving a trace of their never-dying presence.

We welcome Rasmus Raphaëlle Östebro to Whose Museum and hope this will be only the beginning of a continuous stream of encounters throughout our programme this year.  

Rasmus Raphaëlle Östebro (b. 1989, Sweden) is a visual artist and everyday drag persona producing live-based events, performance, installation, sculptural objects, video, audio and text-based works. Rasmus Raphaëlle is educated at Konstfack - University College of Arts Crafts and Design (SE), Bergen Academy of Art and Design (NO), Stockholm University of the Arts/DOCH (SE), Gothenburg School of Art (SE) and The Swedish National Ballet School (SE)

COVID-19

We are staying updated on all recommendations from the Public Health Agency of Sweden. During the opening as well as during opening hours, entrance to the museum is limited to five visitors at a time. We will provide hand sanitizer and gloves, and perform daily sterilization of all high touch surfaces. We request all visitors maintain a physical distance of 1.5–2 meters. Please stay home if you feel ill or have recently been ill.

Supported by the Culture Department of Malmö

Photos by Lena Bergendahl