A free guided tour of the exhibition Burning down the patriarchy. The Berlin women and lesbians’ scene photographed by Petra Gall with Collin Klugbauer from the curatorial team in English spoken language.

The activism of the women’s and lesbian movement in the 1980s and 1990s drastically changed society. Women and lesbians fought for economic equality and for social and legal recognition. They demanded the right over their bodies and campaigned against sexualized violence. They created numerous spaces to protest, think, celebrate and fuck.

The exhibition “Burning down the Patriarchy. The Berlin women and lesbians’ scene photographed by Petra Gall” celebrates the extensive cultural, intellectual and sexual productivity of the women’s & lesbian community of the 1980s and 1990s through the photos of Petra Gall. Her works show how strong, diverse and fierce the Berlin women’s and lesbian scene was.

Petra Gall (1955-2018), who moved to Berlin in 1981, was part of the women’s and lesbian scene and photographed it for over two decades. extensive legacy of work, comprising over 200,000 negatives, prints and contact sheets, as well as personal items, has been in the collection of the Schwules Museum since 2012. Petra Gall is an important chronicler of Berlin’s lesbian and women’s scene, but she also portrayed the punk and music scene, has made impressive travel documentaries and documented the city of Berlin in all its contradictions.

The exhibition as part of the photography festival “Kommunikation und Haltung,” organized by Haus des Papiers, at the Schwules Museum.

Photo: Walpurgis Night Demonstration West-Berlin, 30.04.1983, by Petra Gall, Schwules Museum Berlin