Udruga Flamingo osnovana je s ciljem promicanja suvremenih oblika queer umjetničkih izričaja, u svrhu afirmacije i valorizacije istih u regionalnom kulturnom i civilnom sektoru, te kako bi kroz organizaciju i produkciju istih radila na podršci i osnaživanju građanki i građana u prihvaćanju kako vlastitih seksualnih i rodnih identiteta, tako i na postizanju društvene vidljivosti rodno varijantnih identiteta i seksualnih praksi.
U Zagrebu i Hrvatskoj trenutno ne postoji organizacija koja se sustavno bavi prezentacijom queer kulture, povijesti i raznolikosti queer životnih stilova kroz umjetnički sadržaj kreiran od strane mladih umjetnika i umjetnica, kako unutar queer zajednice tako onih van nje. Queer kulturni i umjetnički sadržaji svedeni su na povremena strana gostovanja, više ili manje naglašenog ekskluzivnog karaktera, a o njihovoj se queer komponenti uglavnom ne govori dovoljno artikulirano, glasno i društveno angažirano. Flamingo djeluje upravo s ciljem pružanja prostora za umjetničku afirmaciju mladih, ali i društvenu emancipaciju publike kroz zabavne, inovativne i neuobičajene programske sadržaje.
Flamingo kroz svoj rad sustavno pokazuje da queer umjetnost, odnosno umjetnost stvorena od same zajednice postoji, te samu zajednicu osvještavamo da istu treba konzumirati i uživati. Također, stvara nove i osnažuje postojeće queer identitete na zabavan način pružajući prostor gdje će publika moći odbaciti suvremene ideologije queer pokreta, koje pod krinkom uključivosti promovira isključivost, političku korektnost i tako uvjetuje formiranje identiteta.
Vizija je udruge da umjetnost i umjetnički sadržaji trebaju biti zabavni jednako koliko edukativni i visoki. Vođeni time političko i seksualno stavlja u prostore gdje nisu očekivani (prostori zabave, clubbinga itd.), a od kojih su povijesno neodvojivi. Flamingo neformalno djeluje od sredine 2013. godine dok je od sredine 2014. formalno registrirana kao neprofitna udruga građana s ciljem promocije queer kulture i naslijeđa. Trenutni je fokus udruge jačanje lokalne i regionalne drag izvedbene scene. Udruga, i njena umjetnička platforma House of Flamingo funkcionira na principu inkluzivnog prostora u kojemu svi mogu doći stvarati zabavan scenski i umjetnički sadržaj ili u njemu participirati sve dok dijele ideale i vrijednosti uključivosti. U tom kontekstu, angažman umjetnika, volontera i publike je onoliki koliko oni sami žele: od konzumacije sadržaja, njegovog stvaranja ili participacijom primjerice eksperimentirajući s vlastitim identitetom na događajima koje HoF organizira.
Flamingo Association was founded to promote contemporary forms of queer artistic expression, in order to affirm and valorize them in the regional culture and civil sector. We organize and produce events for the support and empowerment of citizens in accepting that their own sexual and gender identity as well as to achieve social visibility of gender variant identities and sexual practices.
In Zagreb, Croatia, there is currently no other organization that systematically deals with the presentation of queer culture, history and diversity of queer lifestyles through artistic content created by young artists, both within the queer community as well as those outside it. Queer cultural and artistic activities have been reduced to occasional visits from foreign artists, with a more or less pronounced exclusive character, with their queer components usually not articulated enough, but also not loudly and socially engaged. Flamingo is working to provide space for artistic affirmation of young people and social emancipation of the audience through fun, innovative and unusual program content. Through its work, Flamingo systematically shows that queer art, or art created by the queer community exists and we encourage the community itself that it should be consumed and enjoyed. We also aim to createe new and strengthen existing queer identities in a fun way by providing a space where the audience will be able to reject the ideology of contemporary queer movement, which under the guise of promoting inclusiveness promotes exclusivity, political correctness and by doing so conditiones the formation of identity.
The vision of our association is that the arts and artistic content should be entertaining and educational, as much as it should be high and intellectual. Guided by that, we place the political and sexual in areas where they are not expected (areas of entertainment, clubbing etc.), which are historically inseparable from queer art forms. Flamingo is informally working from mid-2013 until the mid of 2014, when we formally registered as a non-profit association of citizens to promote queer culture and heritage. The current focus of the association is to strengthen local and regional drag performance scene. Association, and its artistic platform House of Flamingo functions as an inclusive space where all can come to create a fun scene and artistic content or participate in it as long as they share our ideals and values of inclusiveness. In this context, the involvement of artists, volunteers and the public is as much as they choose: from the consumption of content, its creation or participation in it for example by experimenting with their own identity in the events that HoF is organizing.