Sex Reenchanted at Heidelberger Kunstverein

Artists: Daphne Ahlers, Dalila Dalléas Bouzar, CANAN, Anna Ehrenstein, Monia Ben Hamouda, Şafak Şule Kemancı, Tabita Rézaire, Zoe Williams

Exhibition title: Sex Reenchanted

Curated by: Mehveş Ungan

Venue: Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg, Germany

Date: June 21 – September 22, 2024

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Heidelberger Kunstverein

The feminist group exhibition Sex Reenchanted presents eight international artists and their decolonial perspectives on sexuality.

How can sensuality and desire emerge from the shadows of histories of colonialism, slavery and misogynistic components of modern medicine? In answering this question, the exhibition draws on pre-capitalist narratives and art forms that have been partly forgotten and partly suppressed. How can feminists appropriate historical practices and forms of knowledge in line with Silvia Federici’s call for a ‘re-enchantment of the world’?

Dalila Dalléas Bouzar traces the emotional power of prehistoric rock paintings in the southern Algerian Sahara; Monia Ben Hamouda practises Islamic calligraphy to question the Christian link between sex and original sin; CANAN revisits the Ottoman literary genre of the bahname, which focuses on sexual pleasure of women; Şafak Şule Kemancı’s works evoke gardens filled with the intoxicating scent of seductive flowers.

Knowledge is a dynamic entity that is constantly dying and being reborn. Dealing with cultural heritage is a process of constant renegotiation. In the exhibition, this is seen in the equally uncanny and inviting works of Zoe Williams, who uninhibitedly revives the eroticism of the antiquity; Anna Ehrenstein’s exploration of Orientalism; Daphne Ahlers’ unmasking of historical masculinity by playing with the codpiece; Tabita Rézaire’s powerful critique of Western gynaecology, guided by the embodied wisdom of her Black ancestors.

Curated by Mehveş Ungan

Generously supported by the Innovationsfonds of the Ministry of Science, Research and Art of the State of Baden-Württemberg.