We Carry Forward at Luther Museum

We Carry Forward

July 10 - October 11, 2026

Opening: Friday, July 10 from 5 pm (RSVP)

‘We Carry Forward’ showcases the work of eight contemporary visual artists who explore the theme of ‘queer futurity.’ In the exhibition, we question seemingly undisputed, dominant truths and make space for a multitude of perspectives, voices, and stories. How do queer lives, shaped through coded survival and collective care, produce alternative temporalities? 

Featuring work by: Yamuna Forzani, Philipp Gufler, Andrea Knezović, Ana Linhares, Katja Mater, Rory Pilgrim, Mikołaj Sobczak, and Thato Toeba. Conceptualised and curated by Andrea Knezović.

Luther Museum Amsterdam
Nieuwe Keizersgracht 570,
1018 VG Amsterdam

Opening times:
Thursday - Sunday 11 am - 5 pm

Urning & Urningin. Language and Desire since 1864

 

URNING AND URNINGIN 

Language and Desire since 1864

9 January – 12 April 2026

Opening: Friday, January 9, 8 - 11 p.m. 

Curated by Philipp Gufler

Artists: Sharan Bala, CAConrad, Philipp Gufler, Eli Hill, KRIWET, Cosy Pièro, Rory Pilgrim, Sophie Serber, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, Louwrien Wijers

Note: this exhibition takes place in our renewed location at De Constant Rebecqueplein in The Hague.

Love and desire between people of the same sex have existed throughout history. For centuries, there was no language to name these desires–except in medical and legal terms that defined them as illness or crime. This began to change thanks to Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825–1895), a German lawyer who was the first to describe same-sex desire as an identity category. Ulrichs conducted extensive research into what he called ‘uranism’, built a network of scholars around it, and argued that queer desire should be recognised as something innate rather than criminal. With his own vocabulary he articulated queer identity long before words such as homosexual, gay, or queer existed.

Ulrichs’ legacy forms the starting point for the exhibition Urning and Urningin. Language and Desire since 1864. The title refers to Ulrichs’ positive description for himself and others with queer desire: Urning and Urningin. He used these words publicly for the first time in his series of pamphlets Riddle of Male-Male Love, published between 1864 and 1880. Before that, queer desires were left unnamed and treated as equivalent to forbidden sodomy in Western society at the time. Ulrichs’ new words were widely used in German at the end of the 19th century and were also adopted in the Netherlands and beyond. Although his terminology did not stick in the current times, Ulrichs’ ideas laid the groundwork for modern queer theory.

In this exhibition, guest curator Philipp Gufler explores the limitations of language–then and now–in expressing desire, and calls for intersectional solidarity. Alongside original documents and letters by Ulrichs, which offer a glimpse into his era and the influence of his thinking, nine contemporary artists have been invited. Through their work, they reflect on themes of (gender)identity, language, and queer desire. Marking the 200th anniversary of Ulrichs’ birth, this exhibition connects past and present, showing how exchange across generations can be both hopeful and transformative.

A publication will be released alongside the exhibition, featuring a pamphlet by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, visual material by the artists, and newly commissioned texts by Gürsoy Doğtaş, Hendrik Folkerts and Simon(e) van Saarloos. 

Nest
De Constant Rebecqueplein 20-B
2518 RA Den Haag
The Netherlands

Photos: Kyle Tryhorn

Unterwerfungen

December 8, 2022–January 29, 2023 

Kunstraum, Leuphana University Lüneburg
Lüneburg
Germany

Kunstraum of the Leuphana University Lüneburg is delighted to announce the opening of Philipp Gufler´s solo exhibition Unterwerfungen. Bringing together old and new works and structured by Gufler’s ongoing collaboration with the self-organized Forum Queeres Archiv München, Unterwerfungen tracks the various ways in which Gufler stages archival material, resisting the heteronormative capture of a resistant past.

The installation I Wanna Give You Devotion consists of six textile walls, covered with over 130 posters from the archive of the Forum. The tender and temporary architecture houses an “archive of feelings” (Ann Cvetkovich) that registers the affective dimensions of documenting and recording queer cultures. Tethered to a heterotopic idea of the public, these posters communicate and conspire, leaving tracks of queer desire and life as well as ongoing struggles. With each presentation, Gufler has asked fellow friends and collaborators to make new posters in response to the Forum collection. At Kunstraum, we are presenting new posters by Cheap Collective and Sunil Gupta. A publication, produced in collaboration with students from the Leuphana University Lüneburg, will be on display and may be picked up free of charge. The publication brings together the students´ individual and collective research into a selection of posters also shown in the installation.

Inside the installation, the 34-minute film Projection on the Crisis (Gauweilereien in Munich) is screened. Juxtaposing archival material from the Forum with artworks by friends and collaborators of Gufler, the video threads together stories of homophobia and queer resistance, with a particular focus on Peter Gauweiler’s homophobic policies at the height of the AIDS crisis in Bavaria. Loosely organized around a timeline, the camera's almost uninterrupted tracking shot of the documents and artworks furthers the illusion of a progressive linearity, one that is revealed to be as much a function of a historical gaze, as an effect of technological dispositifs. A careful exploration of the synthetic nature of “historical fictions” (Saidiya Hartman), the film articulates an emancipatory potential of making history.

As part of his ongoing Quilt series, Gufler has collaborated with the artist Eli Hill to produce for the exhibition his newest quilt, dealing with the legacy and memory of the philanthropist Reed Erickson (1917–92), one of the first trans men to undergo gender-confirming surgery in the US, who systematically supported trans health care initiatives and members of the transgender community.

Philipp Gufler is an artist based in Munich and Amsterdam. He spans various media in his practice, including silkscreen prints on fabric and mirrors, artist books, performances, and video installations. Gufler is a member of the Forum Queeres Archiv München since 2013 and has participated in artist residencies at De Ateliers, Amsterdam; Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Maine; and Delfina Foundation, London. Artist books include Projection on the Crisis (2014/2021), I Wanna Give You Devotion (2017), Indirect Contact (2017), Quilt #01–#30 (2020), Lana Kaiser (2020), A Shrine to Aphrodite (2023) and Cosy bei Cosy (2023).


Exhibition opening: December 7, no prior registration required.
Lecture performance: December 7, 7–8pm, Susanne Sachsse (Cheap Collective) presents Well, a fresh breeze with words and gestures.
Screening: December 8, 6–9pm, with films by Philipp Gufler, Liane Klingler, Zoe Leonard and Catherine Saalfield.
Presentation and conversation with Sunil Gupta: January 24, 6–8pm.

Guided Tour with Philipp Gufler: January 25, 4 pm
Panel discussion on the "Hirschfeld Renaissance" and Trans Fabulations: January 25, 7–9pm, with Leah Tigers, Dean Erdmann, Maxi Wallenhorst, Raimund Wolfert, et al.

Fotos: Fred Dott