Queers on the Move: The Make Friends Project was an ongoing public performance work that dealt humorously with representation, visibility and the acknowledging and making of queer history. While performing a choreographed cheer to an original song that jubilantly shouted “Make Friends!”, Toni Latour, and Rina Larsson, poignantly entertained crowds at venues ranging from movie theatres, to media festivals, to the Calgary Stampede! Once the performance ended, they offered 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!”
Toni Latour first conceived of the project as a response to an invitation by FUSE magazine (Toronto) to develop a series of public performances in Vancouver that would later be translated to the printed page in the Fall of 2003. The piece grew into a community building project that resulted in four different incantations. Through changing t-shirt slogans and song lyrics, each new performance was tailored to its location and audience.
The first performance took place at Vancouver’s 2003 Out on Screen Queer 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 the theatres became host to a festival of “celebratory…life-affirming queer images and representations” including two cupcake-wielding artists out to make friends.
Since then, the friendly duo adapted the performance for another year at Out on Screen (2004), the Signal and Noise Festival at Video In, Vancouver (2004), and The Epcor Centre during the 2005 Calgary Stampede! That performance was sponsored by The New Gallery that also hosted an exhibition of Queers on the Move.
This performance work took its cue from projects of the era, like Lesbian National Parks & Services by artists Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan, and The Specialists: Performing the Heterosexual Couple by Judy Radul. Those public art projects examined constructs of sexuality and poked fun at heterocentric societal assumptions. Queers on the Move was 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 her documentary Little Sisters VS Big Brother could be screened at the 2002 Vancouver Queer Film Festival.
Latour and Larsson’s motivation for presenting Queers on the Move came from a desire for continued queer representations from within queer communities. With humour at the centre, the performances aspired to increasing visibility and creating joyful audience engagement.
Watch the Queers on the Move Video Here (disclaimer: language used in this video reflects the time period of the early 2000’s)
