Exotic

with Aaron Cheng, Berin Sünetci, Golbarg Givghassab and Seven X. Ebeling

Curated by Seven X. Ebeling

Exotic is a group exhibition that examines and reworks the gaze that has historically rendered certain bodies, cultures, and practices as exotic. The term carries a colonial legacy: it has long been used to mark people and aesthetics as strange, desirable, or out of place; defined through a Western framework of perception. In Germany today, this gaze persists, extending not only to migrant, queer, and trans bodies but also to artworks, which are often framed as symbols of identity or diversity rather than engaged with as complex artistic practices in their own right.

The exhibition begins from this tension. Institutions and audiences demand visibility from marginalized artists, yet rarely extend recognition or belonging in return. Exotic exposes and unsettles these structures by turning attention back onto the mechanisms of seeing itself. It does not attempt to create a space free from the gaze (such a space may not exist) but instead reclaims the terms on which heritage, queerness, and identity can be spoken and seen.

28.10.2025-30.11.2025