The Forum Queeres Archiv München is looking for works by Munich artist Cosy Pièro (1937-2023) for a film and exhibitions.
The video installation Remembering Cosy (working title) by the artist Philipp Gufler is an experimental portrait of the artist’s life and work. Over the past ten years, Gufler has been in close artistic exchange with Cosy Pièro.
After studying fine arts in Brussels and spending an extended period in the south of France, she moved back to Germany and lived as a single mother with her son in Munich. To earn a living, Cosy founded the legendary queer artists’ bar Bei Cosy in 1962. There she exhibited her infamous series of drawings, which were confiscated in 1963 under the Bavarian Obscenity and Trash Law and most likely destroyed. In the early 1980s, after 20 years, she handed over Bei Cosy to her partner at the time and concentrated exclusively on her art again. In the 1980s, she created large-format paintings, larger-than-life sculptures, and expansive installations, which she exhibited internationally. It is particularly difficult to find works from this creative period in the 1980s that were sold through galleries.
For the planned video installation, Philipp Gufler intends to film Cosy Pièro’s works in private collections and institutions. Remembering Cosy is being created in close collaboration with Cosy’s widow, in cooperation with the FQAM, and is scheduled to be shown together with works by Cosy Pièro at the end of 2026. Remembering Cosy addresses the exclusion of queer and female artists up to the present day and explores the artist’s legacy.
If you own works by Cosy Pièro, have further information about the artist, or are also interested in her life and work, please contact Philipp Gufler:
kontakt (at) philippgufler.de
Cosy Pièro, Auch Erdbeeren zünden (Strawberries also ignite), 1984, painted wood, 120 x 80 cm, unknown owner, photo: N.N., from: Cosy Pièro: Neue Arbeiten, München: Dany Keller Galerie, 1985