On the Origins of the 21st Century or the Fall of Communism as Seen in Gay Pornography

Through five curated sections, this cluster of exhibitions examines the role of intimacy, gender, and sexuality through visual cultures in the context of political regime changes in Europe from the 1980s until today. Artworks that engage with the Fall of the Berlin Wall and its consequences shed light on the emergence of a power vacuum, in a moment often referred to as the end of history, and the struggles emerging within new hegemonies informed by gender and sexuality. The title references Jean-Luc Godard’s f ilm Origins of the 21st Century, which anticipates developments in visual culture that synthesise violence and the erotic into an era of the “hardcore” at the turn of the millennium – a time when uncensored images increasingly begin to enable and establish new political spaces. The exhibition seeks the origins of this hardcore visual culture not in cinema, but in video and television media, locating them as the dominant tools of discourse and power in a then- accelerating postmodernity.

Curated by Angela Harutyunyan, Charles Teyssou und Pierre-Alexandre Mateos, Dina Akhmadeeva, Elisa R. Linn, Erika Balsom.

With works by:

Sona Abgaryan, Jürgen Baldiga, Annemirl Bauer, Maria Grazia Belmonti, Anna Mária

Beová, Bärbel Bohley, Günter Brus, Anna Carini, Michel Carrouges, Shu Lea

Cheang, Mahmoud Dabdoub, Lutz Dammbeck, Rony Daopoulo, Anna Dauíková, Paola De

Martiis, De-Zentralbild, Mark Dion, Peter Friedl, Nikolay Georgiev, Wiktor Grodecki, Diana

Hakobyan, Nguyen Tan Hoang, Jayne-Ann Igel, Libue Jarcovjáková, William E. Jones, David

Kareyan, Tigran Khachatryan, Pierre Klossowski, Künstlerinnengruppe Erfurt, Raja Lubinetzki,

Materialien aus dem Archiv GrauZone, Paul McCarthy, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Bjarne

Melgaard, Annabella Miscuglio, Clara Mosch, Namenlos, Ladies Neid, Shz Numa, César

Olhagaray, Geraldo Paunde, Ulrich Polster, Núria Quevedo, Loredana Rotondo, Ronald M.

Schernikau, Sarah Schulman, Harout Simonian, Gabriele Stötzer, Sandra Teitge, Tsomak, Ralf-

Rainer Wasse, Jürgen Wittdorf, frau anders, Rosa von Praunheim

Organised by Milan Ther, with Christian Bätjer, Dr Martin Karcher, and Sarah Messerschmidt