{"id":150,"date":"2024-12-24T09:42:57","date_gmt":"2024-12-24T09:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michalrutz.com\/?p=150"},"modified":"2026-05-28T08:19:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T08:19:52","slug":"how-to-mourn-a-faggot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michalrutz.com\/pl\/how-to-mourn-a-faggot\/","title":{"rendered":"Jak op\u0142akiwa\u0107 peda\u0142a po pedalsku?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[\u2192<\/strong> czytaj po Polsku]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kunstraum Seestadt, Vienna<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For Jean<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trigger for the creation of this work was unresolved grief following the loss of my friend Juan Cueto<\/strong>. His family buried him according to their own beliefs and against his own\u2014erasing his queer life, partner, and community. This double denial\u2014as if he had not only died, but never existed<\/strong>\u2014left me with a profound sense of injustice and the question: how can we mourn an indecent indecently? Traditional funeral rituals enforce solemnity, stripping the body of its sexual history. This desexualization is not neutral\u2014it is a tool of moral control, an act of erasing queer existence.1<\/a><\/sup>2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But can we remember the dead and still honor them as sexual beings?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Camp Reinterpretation<\/strong> of Memento Mori<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At the center of the installation rests a jockstrap\u2014men\u2019s underwear popular among gay men that exposes the buttocks. It is encircled by Schwedenbomben\u2014Austrian chocolate-coated foam sweets on wafers. This dessert, whose delicate shell cracks at the slightest touch, evokes the vanitas tradition and Baroque still lifes, in which desserts functioned as a meditation on the fleeting nature of life and the futility of earthly pursuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As mass-produced, inexpensive sweets, Schwedenbomben introduce irony and a camp aesthetic rooted in queer culture. They fuse the motif of memento mori (Latin for \u201cremember that you must die\u201d) with exaggeration, humor, and artifice. In this context, Schwedenbomben become a camp reinterpretation of memento mori<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Willem Claesz. Heda<\/strong> Still Life with Fruit Pie and various Objects.<\/strong><\/em> 1634
Oil on panel. 43.7 x 68.2 cm, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
The desert in Baroque still life functions as a meditation on the impermanence of life and the futility of earthly pursuits.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pleasure over Practicality <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Both the jockstrap and the Swedish bomb are made primarily for pleasure. Sweets packed with sugar offer no real nutritional value. Instead,<\/strong> their taste, appearance, and smell are carefully designed to maximize enjoyment. Similarly, the jockstrap barely covers the skin, functioning less as a practical garment and more as a means to enhance the body\u2019s sexual allure. Thus, in both cases, function gives way to sensation, and utility is replaced by the pursuit of pleasure<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Queer Ritual<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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But where is the body? Is it a summoning, an offering, or both? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The jockstrap, lying on the ground, evokes the absence of the body: a trace of someone once present, desired, and lost. Paired with the sweets, it recalls food offerings for the dead found across cultures\u2014from D\u00eda de Muertos and Slavic Dziady to the Hungry Ghost Festival\u2014rituals that seek to bridge the gap between the living and the dead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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A sugar skull, a common gift for children and decoration for the Day of the Dead.
Photo by Spangineer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the circle suggests a protective barrier<\/strong>\u2014separating the summoner from the unknown forces they seek to invoke. In Western esoteric tradition, materials like salt, flour, or chalk were used to form magic circles. Yet here, the Schwedenbomben are used, introducing a humorous twist\u2014a sprinkle of absurdity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Frontispiece to a 1620 printing of Doctor Faustus<\/em> showing Faustus conjuring Mephistophilis. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Political Power of Queer Grief<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 1991, Felix Gonz\u00e1lez-Torres placed a pile of wrapped candies in a gallery to commemorate the loss of his close friend to AIDS \u2014 Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.). Visitors were free to take candies away. The gradually diminishing pile of candies mirrored the deterioration and disappearance of patience consumed by the disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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F\u00e9lix Gonz\u00e1lez-Torres, “Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.)<\/em><\/strong>
Queer erasure is an ongoing practice: the National Portrait Gallery in D.C. removed all reference to the artist\u2019s lover and AIDS.
<\/em>Photo by mark6mauno.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, my piece reflects the grief I carry from losing my dear friend, Jean Cueto<\/strong>3<\/a><\/sup>. Private loss becomes public once again, and queerness becomes visible once more. Queer mourning carries political and revolutionary potential4<\/a><\/sup>. The shared experience of loss builds community, solidarity, and resistance against the forced forgetting of non-heteronormative lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is bittersweet. Silly at first glance\u2014just some underwear and candy. Yet it carries deeper meaning and hope: hope that emerges from vulnerability, from sharing pain, and from refusing to forget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Queer Art Space Vienna Award 2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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In the photo, from left: Michael Kaufmann (jury member); top 3 artists: Micha\u0142 Rutz, Valentino Skarwan, Julia Fuchs; and Jasmin Bauer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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For the artwork How to Mourn a Faggot<\/em>, Micha\u0142 Rutz received 2nd place (ex aequo with Valentino Skarwan) in the Queer Art Space Vienna Award 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photos: Julia Fuchs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Shows<\/strong>:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n