Opening: Thursday, October 17, 2024, 7 pm
Duration: October 18, 2024 – April 28, 2025

“This is how I am in my whole body, this is how I am and this is how I remain. Yes, sir!” (Zarah Leander)

The biographical estate of Eberhardt Brucks (1917-2008), which is kept in the Gay Museum, gives us a special insight into the life of a gay man who was remarkably characterized by resilience: the ability to overcome difficult situations or crises and emerge stronger from them. In National Socialist Berlin, under the persecution of Paragraph 175 and in the post-war period, Eberhardt repeatedly found loopholes to live out his gay identity and sexuality. Eberhardt’s strategies of resilience included playful approaches and protected him from the systems, made him capable of acting, enabled him to have partnerships, physical self-empowerment and spaces of joy. This new perspective on a not-so-ordinary gay life in the 20th century is extended into a queer present in this exhibition: four positions by contemporary artists tie in with the resilient aspects of Eberhardt Brucks’ life.

Curated by neo seefried

“Strategies of Resilience” is an exhibition with objects from the Eberhardt Brucks collection at the Schwules Museum, as well as artistic works by Genesis Kahveci, Florian Hetz, Sarnt Utamachote and Rein Vollenga.

Key Visual: Anna Unterstab

Funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion