Hanging by a Thread

A Critical Assessment of a Queer Intervention into the Narratives and Practices of the National Museum of Iceland

Abstract

This article explores the implications and results of A Rainbow Thread, a queer intervention into the narratives and practices of the National Museum of Iceland organised in 2018 by a group of queer academics and activists. A Rainbow Thread is a narrative layer that overlays the museum’s permanent exhibition. It not only adds information to the permanent exhibition but also calls into question its cis-heteronormative assumptions and the absence of overt references to queer genders and sexualities. A Rainbow Thread is thus more than a simple temporary exhibition; it represents a limited commitment to queer inclusion – limited because it does not integrate queer narratives into the permanent exhibition. In this way, the museum reserves a marginal place for queer themes and, by extension, LGBTQ+ people. What is needed is a broad institutional commitment to LGBTQ+ communities in Iceland. Museums need to rethink and restructure their institutional practices and governance in a way that levels the playing field between institutions and marginalised communities.