Abstract
This is a multimodal essay project on the life of Gaëtane Buttigieg, an artist and acupuncturist who was forcibly institutionalized in 1971. This project combines video, photography, and writing to try to examine the pathologization and erasure of queer experiences, the ways that privilege can protect or harm a person, and what happens when family narratives come into conflict with one another. This essay traces Gaëtane’s childhood in France, her tumultuous school years and the challenges of coming out as a teenager in the late 60’s, and the injuries that she sustained in her institutionalization.