Safe Space

neon by Kem and Joseph Funnel

February- March 2018

Kem’s neon sign was developed in collaboration with artist and performer Joseph Funnell, as part of the Kem Care program at the Museum of Modern Art. The neon sign is the safe space sign of a pink triangle in a green circle.  

The pink triangle is a symbol that was used during the Nazi occupation to mark gay men in concentration camps and has since been reclaimed by the ACT UP movement in the 80s as a sign of queer resistance, solidarity and activism initiated by the AIDS pandemic. The green circle indicates an intersectionality or expansion of this alliance to ecofeminism. The triangle and the circle are also used in Polish toilets to designate the male and female toilet.

The project for the neon sign was proposed to the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw as a temporary neon addition to the museum sign on top of the Museum’s building in central Warsaw, placing a sign of queer safe space in the public domain.  The proposal was to place this neon sign intervention along the Museum’s usual neon sign in the city centre. The project was discussed and subsequently rejected by the Museum of Modern Art, however we developed a smaller model version that is used on various occasions.