The estate of the photographer Albrecht Becker (1906-2002), who was also a pioneer in the field of body modification, is one of the most important holdings in the archive of the Schwules Museum. Even the first generation of staff at the Schwules Museum was dedicated to Becker’s work. Thus, the first volume of the “Lebensgeschichten” (“Life Stories”) published by the Schwules Museum from 1993 onwards by the Rosa Winkel publishing house was dedicated to Becker. The focus was on the life story of Becker, who was arrested under Paragraph 175 during the Nazi era. The Schwules Museum, in this case Andreas Sternweiler, did pioneering work here. At the beginning of the 1990s, history and cultural studies in German-speaking countries were still far from focusing on queer history.

Becker’s photographs, however, have not stopped captivating their audience. In recent years, media scholar Prof. Dr. Katrin Köppert (Bochum) has been intensively studying the materials on Becker which are available in the archive of the Schwules Museum. The result of this is her study “Queer Pain. Pain as Solidarization, Photography as Affection: On the Photographs of Albrecht Becker from the 1920s to the 1990s” (2021), which treats Becker’s work in a fascinating and impressive way from the perspective of queer media theory after the affective turn – and thus makes Becker’s works part of a current transnational discourse on photography and queer image politics.

Lucas Foletto Celinski was born in Brazil and has lived and worked in Berlin for many years. In his minimalist sculptures he deals with themes like S/M and fetishism. Last year Lucas Foletto Celinski was also represented here at the Schwules Museum in the group exhibition Intimacy: New Queer Art from Berlin and Beyond. At the same time, he volunteers at the archive, helping significantly with the processing of Becker’s holdings. This activity has inspired him to an artistic exploration of Becker, which he will help to present.

Peter Rehberg, Head of Collections at the Schwules Museum, will lead the evening and introduce his guests Katrin Köppert and Lucas Foletto Celinski, who will talk about their encounters with Becker.

A conversation by Dr. Katrin Köppert (Ruhr-Universität Bochum) and Lucas Foletto Celinski (Berlin) with Collection Director Dr. Peter Rehberg in the middle of a temporary art installation.

Admission to the event is 4€ and will be held in German spoken language. A 3G proof is required.