instinct #21 Opening Reception

Within dominant cultural frameworks, shame is often treated as something to outgrow, the opposite of dignity, pride, or confidence. But shame is not only an inner feeling. It is produced between people: a social mechanism made of looks, expectations, and silent rules. It draws a line around what may appear, what must be softened, what is allowed to be desired.

Unverschämt! names the moment someone crosses that line.

At the same time, unverschämt can also mean excessively, almost offensively good,
unverschämtes Glück, unbelievable luck, hinting at a pleasure that refuses to shrink.

The exhibition works with this double charge: shame as a tool of control, and audacity as a way of taking it back. It asks what provocation does in queer life—not only as spectacle, but as strategy: a way to survive, to test the limits of belonging, to reclaim the body from politeness, to turn what was meant to humiliate into a chosen stance.

Unverschämt! also moves through confession and disclosure: what we tell, what we hide, what we perform, what we protect—toward ourselves, our friends, our families, our communities. Confession can be a desire for closeness, a price for acceptance, a demand placed upon us, or a refusal we insist on. The exhibition lingers at these thresholds: between secrecy and statement, between vulnerability and control, between care and risk.

It is an insistence on presence without apology.

About Instinct
Instinct.berlin is an arts organization that presents exhibitions with queer artists twice a year at the Village, a community center for queer people in Berlin. These exhibitions, along with performances and talks, encourage interaction between artists and the local community.

The residency program allows artists to engage intensively with the vibrant atmosphere of the Village and build a bridge between their work and the wider queer community. This collaboration enriches the cultural dialog and supports the development of queer art projects, benefiting both the artists and the community at large.

Das Event ist Teil unseres Projekts Art Bridge Berlin, das die Einbeziehung von queeren Künstlern mit Flüchtlings- oder Migrationserfahrung unterstützt.