Embrace is a nomadic platform for interdisciplinary cultural and artistic exchange designed to promote both national and international cooperation. Established in 2020 by Karolina Sobel and Kerstin Möller, it brings together a multiplicity of medial art forms, including video, photography, sound installations, performances, and workshops. Embrace advocates gender equality and the normalization of non-binary gender identities in Germany, Poland, and Europe. The emphasis is on artistic exchange on the topics of LGBTQIA+ and women’s rights, as well as on forms of nonviolent resistance.
As its premiere project, the platform has organized an exhibition for the Badischer Kunstverein featuring invited Polish artists and artists with biographical connections to Karlsruhe. The contributions of Liliana Zeic and Karol Radziszewski & Queer Archives Institute investigate perspectives for queer historiography in Poland. Zeic explores the history of non-normative women in Poland with reference to a portrait of Polish novelist Narcyza Żmichowska. Karol Radziszewski provides insights into the Queer Archives Institute, an institution founded by the artist as an alternative collection for queer sources from Central and Eastern Europe. Together with workshop participants, Edka Jarząb elaborates an audio-manifesto, that seeks to come to terms with the concept of the ‘Safe Space.’ It explores how normative, dominant models complicate everyday struggles with queerness, femmehood, and high sensitivity. Mara Ittel and Charlotte Eifer address the issue of post-digital worlds from a feminist perspective. Jessica Kessler intervenes in the restrooms of the Badischer Kunstverein, critically interrogating inherent binary decisions. The exhibition also incorporates film screenings at the Kinemathek Karlsruhe, with interventions by Karolina Sobel and Kerstin Möller.
Embrace was funded by the UNESCO City of Media Arts Karlsruhe Project Funding Program for Media Art 2021 and takes place in cooperation with Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe, Kinemathek Karlsruhe, Landeshauptstadt Hannover – Kulturbüro, UNESCO City of Music Hannover and Pawilon, Poznan, Poland.
Participating artists:
Charlotte Eifler, Mara Ittel, Edka Jarząb, Jessica Kessler, Kerstin Möller, Karol Radziszewski & Queer Archives Institute, Karolina Sobel, Liliana Zeic.
Opening: 10.20.2022 at the Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe
10 February – 6 June 2022
Current Program:
- Film program at the Kinemathek Karlsruhe: Thursday, 21 April 2022, 7pm: short films and artist talk with Charlotte Eifler, 9pm: screening “Peaches Does Herself” by Peaches, approx. 10.30pm: Closing with DJ session
- Guided City Tour Queer Urban History with Ilona Scheidle: Sunday, 22 May 2022, 2pm, Meeting place: Badischer Kunstverein (Please register for the Guided City Tour at: embraceplatform@gmail.com)
- Finissage: Thursday, 2 June 2022
Further information: http://www.badischer-kunstverein.de
