The best gay, lesbian and queer exhibitions in Berlin this fall!

Between 2012 and 2014, Oranienplatz in Berlin-Kreuzberg was occupied by refugees from different nations to protest German asylum politics. Ten years later, in 2022, a five-day open-air event took place in the same spot to document the Refugee Resistance Movement. This year’s exhibition is a cooperation between International Women* Space and FHXB Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum and commemorates the fight for freedom ten years ago. Additionally, it presents pictures from the mass event in 2022 and shows how intersectional fights are connected transnationally.

O-Platz: O-Platz: empowerment and fights of migration
Until October 1, 2023
FHXB Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum, Adalbertstraße 95A, 10999 Berlin-Kreuzberg
Metro station Kottbusser Tor
Website O-Platz: empowerment and fights of migration (via International Women*Space
Website of FHXB Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum

In 1973, a couple of queers sat together in an East Berlin living room. The TV was playing „It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives” by Rosa von Praunheim and Michael Dannecker. The film is viewed as the starting point of the queer movement in Germany. On this evening 50 years ago, the HIB (Homosexual Interest Group Berlin) was founded. In East Berlin, political organizations outside of party structures were illegal. Because of this, HIB met in private living rooms or public spaces under the unsuspecting name Sundays in the Club. After the reunification, the organization found public support and meeting rooms, which offer a wide variety of events for members of the LGBTQIA+ community to this day. In honor of the fiftieth anniversary, an exhibition in Schwules Museum recounts the history of this legendary and important institution.

lieben. kämpfen. tanzen. – 50 Jahre Sonntags-Club
Until December 31, 2023
Schwules Museum, Lützowstraße 73, 10785 Berlin-Tiergarten
Metro station Kurfürstenstraße
Website lieben. kämpfen. tanzen. – 50 Jahre Sonntags-Club
Website Schwules Museum

La Chola Poblete was crowned artist of the year by Deutsche Bank. In her exhibition, the Argentinian critically interrogates the consequences of colonialism and white hegemony in her home country. Through aquarelles, sculptures, installations, and performances she discusses her experience as an indigenous and queer person and calls attention to the stereotyping and exoticizing of indigenous peoples. In her words, being indigenous has caused her more discrimination than being queer and her art has helped her to stop denying her heritage but instead discover the beauty in it.

La Chola Poblete: Guaymallén
September 8, 2023 until February 5, 2024
PalaisPopulaire, Unter den Linden 5, 10117 Berlin-Mitte
Metro station Museumsinsel
Website La Chola Poblete: Guaymallén
Website PalaisPopulaire

When artists devote themselves completely to their work, they sometimes take great risks – for their career and/or their existence. This exhibition shows works from the archives of different artists from 1970 till today. It focuses on works that were created at the beginning of exactly this process, the complete devotion to their work. Visitors can expect paintings, sculptures, banners, video performances, collages, drawings and much more. Putting skin in the game is the overarching topic, sometimes taken literally, sometimes figuratively.

Skin In The Game
September 14, 2023 until July 1, 2024
KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Auguststraße 69, 10117 Berlin-Mitte
Metro station Oranienburger Tor
Website Skin In The Game
Website KW Institute for Contemporary Art

The US-American photographer Mary Ellen Mark started her career in the 60ties and proved from the beginning where her focus lies: platforming members of marginalized communities. The first big retrospective on her works presents five projects on which Mark worked in the 70ties and 80ties. Ward 81 documents multiple women in a psychiatric ward over several weeks. Falkland Road is a report on sex workers in Mumbai. Indian Circus is a series on circus families; Mother Teresa’s Mission of Charity shows glimpses into the famous figure’s life. Streetwise and Tiny: Streetwise Revisited is a project spanning 30 years that accompanies a person named Tiny from their 9th birthday onwards.

Mary Ellen Mark: Encounters
16.09.2023 bis 18.01.2024
C/O Berlin, Hardenbergstraße 22-24, 10623 Berlin-Charlottenburg
Train and metro station Zoologischer Garten
Website Mary Ellen Mark: Encounters
Website C/O Berlin

Climate change is a serious problem that is relevant to current and coming generations. Pictures often show flooded valleys and burned forests. This group exhibition presents new artistic approaches in the form of photography, video works and installations that discuss the topic in a different light. Doing this they also show the consequences of photography itself on the climate crisis.

Image Ecology
September 16, 2023 until January 18, 2024
C/O Berlin, Hardenbergstraße 22-24, 10623 Berlin-Charlottenburg
Train and metro station Zoologischer Garten
Website Ausstellung Image Ecology
Website C/O Berlin

The term poly positions itself against mono-culture or at least offers alternatives. This exhibition shows artworks by eleven artists working across disciplinaries with a basis in painting. The interpretation of the prefix poly is up to the artists themselves. They debate hustling, mixing, and queering and blur boundaries between countries, genders, and age groups. Visitors can also join a wide discussion program, e.g. curator walks with Solvej Helweg Ovesen and Kathrin Becker.

POLY. A Fluid Show
September 17, 2023 until February 2,2024
KINDL – Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Am Sudhaus 3, 12053 Berlin-Neukölln
Metro station Rathaus Neukölln
Website POLY. A Fluid Show
Website KINDL – Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst

The artist collective General Idea is still viewed as a pioneer of early conceptual and media-specific art. The trio Felix Partz, Jorge Zontal, and AA Bronson from Toronto created works for a multitude of media for 25 years stretching into the mid-1990s, many of which are still relevant today. One of their most well-known projects is One Year of AZT/One Day of AZT in the times of the AIDS crisis. Even beyond that the three spotlighted social inequalities and queer identities. Partz and Zontal died in 1994 due to AIDS. Bronson created the largest retrospective of the artist trio so far, with over 100 pieces, in close collaboration with Gropius Bau.

General Idea
September 22, 2023 until January 14, 2024
Gropius Bau, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin-Mitte
Train and metro station Potsdamer Platz
Website Ausstellung General Idea
Website Gropius Bau

This year, Haus am Waldsee presents the first German institutional exhibition of the French artist Bruno Pélassy. In his early career, the trained textile and jewelry designer worked for Swarovski but later turned his attention more towards art. In 1987, at the age of only 20 years, he was diagnosed with HIV. His handling of the then-fatal diagnosis can be seen in his works that discuss the ambivalent dynamic between illness and death, or the understanding of the body as a porous and uncountable entity, among other things. At the age of 26, Pélassy died due to AIDS. Next to his works, several pieces from contemporary artists will be shown.

Bruno Pélassy and the Order of the Starfish
October 20, 2023 until January 14, 2024
Haus am Waldsee, Argentinische Allee 30, 14163 Berlin-Zehlendorf
Metro station Krumme Lanke
Website Bruno Pélassy and the Order of the Starfish
Website Haus am Waldsee

Born in Budapest in 1899, Peter László Péri learned masonry and later studied sculpting. In the 1920ies he moved to Berlin via Paris, where he worked as an architect for the Berlin City Building Authority from 1924 to 1928. Simultaneously, he developed sculptures and realistic figurines. After the Nazis took power, Péri, who was Jewish, left Berlin and emigrated to Britain, where he received many commissions to design public spaces in the following years. This exhibition focuses mainly on his works after his emigration to Britain, which have not received much attention so far.

Peter László Péri: Péri’s People
September 23, 2023 until January 28, 2024
Kunsthaus Dahlem, Käuzchensteig 8, 14195 Berlin-Dahlem
Bus station Brücke-Museum/Kunsthaus Dahlem
Website Ausstellung Peter László Péri: Péri’s People
Website Kunsthaus Dahlem

Further Information

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Words: Julian Beyer