Lesbian visibility in Slovenia

S. Tratnik

The article surveys lesbian culture and movement in Slovenia. Both are coinciding with media representations of lesbianism and lesbian visual arts, the latter beginning with the shocking exhibition _Obscene Women_ by Austrian photographer Krista Beinstein in 1986. The international lesbian exhibition _Lesbian ConneXions_, which visited the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana in October 2000, represented images of lesbians in a very broad and realistic spectrum, in contrast with the asexual lesbian photographs by unknown authors in the Slovenian mainstream press and in accordance with the depictions of lesbians in Slovenian lesbian press. The photographs from _Lesbian ConneXions_ were, like Beinstein_s exhibition, not very well accepted; even some lesbians argued that some of the photos, especially those of gender-benders, did not represent real and everyday lesbian life but rarities and odd exceptions. But lesbian life in general, far from being an _ordinary_ Slovenian lifestyle, may easily become unrecognizable to lesbians themselves and obscured by the dominant culture.KEY WORDS culture images lesbian and gay movement mediarepresentations visibility visual arts