"BOXED"
"REPRESSION AGAINST LGBTQ IN PRESENT-DAY RUSSIA.
TRAVELING EXHIBITION"
If you’d like to help host the exhibition in your region, please contact us [email protected].
The exhibition is not only an artistic endeavor but also an important platform for
shedding light on the realities faced by the LGBTIQ community in Russia today, it is
designed to engage a broad audience, including cultural and political actors, and to
foster a deeper understanding of the current situation.
We would be truly grateful for your support in making this happen.
Our goal is to bring this exhibition to cities across Europe and beyond. To help us to
come to more places you can donate or become our partner in your city.
Exhibition Program:
May 29
19:00 – Exhibition Opening
20:00 – Performance by Alina Anufrienko, a sound artist, cellist and composer who works with composition as a spatial, social and political practice.
Registration
May 31
18:00 – Screening of the documentary Queendom (Shortlisted for the Oscars. A powerful story of a radical trans artist fighting for freedom and recognition in homophobic Russia. A must-see tale of aesthetics, protest, vulnerability and resistance.)
Registration
June 1
16:30 – Life of LGBTIQ People in Russian Prisons: A life talk with Olga Romanova Systemic violence, stigmatization, unofficial castes and total isolation. A frank and important conversation with the head of the “Russia Behind Bars” foundation.
Registration
June 2
16:30 – Live Talk: LGBT “Extremism”
What does the ban on the “LGBT movement” as “extremist” really mean? How does this new repressive practice work, who is already under attack and is there still any room for protection? Human rights lawyers will provide clear answers—no euphemisms.
Registration
June 4
14:30 – Closing of the exhibition day. Followed by a closed strategic meeting (by invitation only).
June 5
19:00 – Performance by Lola Camomilla. “Coming In / Coming Out” is a visual and physical story of queer transformation — caught between the impossibility of being oneself in one’s home country and the struggle to integrate elsewhere.
All events are part of the large-scale BOXED exhibition—an immersive space at the intersection of art and documentary storytelling. The viewer moves through seven black boxes, each reflecting a theme: isolation, prison, torture, denunciation, transphobia, censorship and sentencing. Inside, there is confinement, oppression and fear — but also hope, solidarity and freedom. Come to see, feel, reflect and engage. Come to resist and stand together.
Artists
Graphic design
Nadia Ukhanova
Photo
Yuri Davydov
Igor Sadreev
Nick Kate
Natalya Belova
We thank our supporters:
Dialogbüro Vienna
the human rights project “Ark”
Anna Lebedeva
Where: Kunstquartier Bethanien – Projektraum (Mariannenpl. 2, 10997, Berlin)
When: May 29 – June 5
Opening Hours: Daily from 11:00 to 19:00
Language: English
Free admission, each event requires a registration.:
https://www.eventbrite.de/e/1352089529179
EQUAL PostOst is a volunteer-based organization. Our work r elies directly on donations. Support our work.
Background
Since February 2022, homophobia has become the core of the Russian state ideology. With the new laws gradually passing, LGBTQ people in Russia face day-to-day discrimination and (self-)censorship as well as threats to liberty, health and safety. They become outlaws while anti-gender narratives are used to justify aggressive military action and war. The Russian example of anti-gender politics is already used by the neighbouring countries under Russian influence, "best practices" and hate narratives can be further applied by right-wing regimes in other countries considering the right turn in European politics. Thi alarming tendency is a threat to international law and democracy beyond one country. We aim to draw attention to the ongoing repression of LGBTIQ people in Russia and to remind the global community of the threat it poses to democracies world-wide. We call for active international support. The exhibition acts as a mediator between the victims and the general audience, offering a space for reflection and discussion, publicity and protection.
Concept
"Boxed" is a series of art installations that, based on documentary evidence, unfold the
history of repressive policies towards the LGBTQ community in Russia. The seven thematic
installations are designed in the form of isolated boxes symbolizing suppression and
imprisonment.
The title addresses the way LGBTQ people feel in Russia today. They are forced into a
small airless space and confined there. Their current "box" is smaller and more
uncomfortable than the famous closet that symbolizes the impossibility to be oneself in
a violent traditionalist society.
Key Topics
The "box" is the main metaphor and the main construction of the exhibition. There are 7 installation boxes representing key topics related to LGBTIQ in present-day Russia:
- Imprisonment
- Torture
- Transgender discrimination
- Censorship
- Denunciations
- The Court decision on extremism recognition
- The Nineties (the "dashing" years of LGBTIQ in Russia)
While multimedia installations affect emotions, comments on the external side of each box provide factual information on respective topics.
Anna Narinskaya
(author, curator, documentary filmmaker, political activist)
In Russia she worked at the Kommersant and Novaya Gazeta newspapers as a journalist,
literary critic and editor. Now in Berlin, she writes for Tagesspiegel and Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung.
Curated exhibitions for Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Jewish Museum, Museum of
Architecture, co-created and curated Joseph Brodsky's Museum in St. Petersburg. In
Europe curated the exhibition "No Such People Here. LGBTQ+ in Chechnya today", shown at
Pride Art Berlin Gallery (2023) and in the UN Mission in Geneva (2024).
The author of documentaries "Find the Jew: Jewish Identity in the USSR" and "Rock,
Paper, Scissors: Ardis Publishing House and the Fate of Russian Literature". Her play
"The Last Word" based on final statements in court by Russian women political prisoners,
premiered at the Gorki
Theater in Berlin (2022) and in Marylebone Theater in London (2024).
