Welcome Back Artist-in-Residence Konstantinos Menelaou

Welcome back Artist-in-Residence Konstantinos Menelaou and his current project, BULLYING (working title), a participatory art documentary exploring exclusion, belonging, power and vulnerability within Queer male experience. Developed during a residency at Tom of Finland Foundation in Los Angeles, the project brings together Queer men from different backgrounds to share stories, memories, confessions and artistic responses through conversation, performance, movement, drag, humor, sexuality and silence.

Moving beyond simple narratives of victim and perpetrator, the film examines how shame, desire, beauty, masculinity, race, class, age and status shape relationships within Queer communities. At its core, BULLYING asks a central question: what happens when communities built around inclusion continue to create outsiders?

“My current project, BULLYING, is a participatory art documentary exploring belonging, exclusion, power, and vulnerability within Queer male experience. The project emerged naturally from my previous film, California Sober, which examined addiction, desire, and recovery. While that film explored how people cope with pain internally, this new work turns outward to examine how pain circulates through communities, relationships, and systems of belonging.

Growing up Queer, I became interested in the tension between exclusion and acceptance. We often imagine Queer communities as spaces of refuge, yet many people continue to experience judgment, rejection, shame, and invisibility within the very communities that promise inclusion. Rather than focusing on bullying as a simple narrative of victim and perpetrator, I am interested in the contradictions of human behavior: how people carry wounds, how they protect themselves, how they seek belonging, and how they sometimes reproduce the same forms of exclusion they once experienced.

My practice is increasingly moving away from traditional documentary forms and toward collaborative, participatory structures. I am interested in creating spaces where testimony can coexist with performance, movement, sexuality, humor, fantasy, silence, and improvisation. The film is not simply about collecting stories; it is about creating encounters and allowing participants to shape the work itself.

My time in Los Angeles and at Tom of Finland Foundation has reinforced my interest in Queer cultural histories, embodiment, desire, and self-representation. I am inspired by artists and filmmakers who blur the boundaries between documentary and performance, confession and fiction, intimacy and politics.”

OPEN CALL

Konstantinos Menelaou is seeking Queer men in Los Angeles to participate in his art documentary developed during his residency at Tom of Finland Foundation.

The project welcomes individuals from all backgrounds—with or without experience—interested in contributing through conversation, storytelling, performance, movement, drag, humor, sexuality, improvisation, memory, silence, or other forms of self-expression.

Participants are invited to share a few hours of their time and become part of a collaborative exploration of belonging, exclusion, vulnerability, desire, and power within Queer male experience.

Please email your name, age, two photos, Instagram account, email address, and a few words about yourself and your interest in the project to: konstantinos@thequeerarchive.com

Published: 3rd June 2026

Categorised in: News