zwischen körpern / among bodies

How our bodies see, are seen, and behave with and among other bodies, is inevitably political. To move the body is also always to insist on meaning—just as meaning is always in movement.

zwischen körpern was first conceived as a group exhibition by the Kleine Humboldt Galerie in the Gerlachbau of for the Tieranatomisches Theater, the seat of the Helmholtz Zentrum für Kulturtechnik that occupies the former veterinary school of Humboldt University in Berlin. Paradoxically, only a few months prior to its opening, the project had to be reimagined in book space due to the public health measures adopted to respond to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Since an exhibition in the former slaughterhouse of the historical Tierarzneischule—an important site for early zoonosis research—was no longer permitted, zwischen körpern now unfolds as printed matter through a unique collaboration with K. Verlag.

The book-as-exhibition presents ten contemporary art positions that each explore the complex and intimate dynamics that expose our bodies to new technologies, social pressures, and desires for liberation. As a curatorial experiment within the micro-architecture of the book, the project initiates singular relays from sculpture, installation, video, photography, and performance to paper that enable parallel engagements with decolonial and intersectional feminist perspectives.