TOO MUCH IS NEVER ENOUGH

opening 24 February 2023 I 6pm-9pm
exhibition 25-26 February 2023 I 1pm-6pm


Deliberate exaggeration has always been a queer strategy to overcome (hetero-)normative ideas of control, naturalness and social order. In this group show, 20 emerging artists explore the queer potential of chemical substances through experiments in moderation, excess and overindulgence. Various (il)legalized agents, bodily fluids, natural and synthetic essences, known and unknown foodstuffs and stimulants take center stage as they get deconstructed, recontextualized and newly mixed. The result is a wildly dosed cocktail of artistic positions that question binaries, blur categories, shift boundaries and thus create moments of the in-between that promise the glimpse of queer utopias in the horizon.

With Too much is never enough, the UdK Film Institute presents works by 20 UdK students who use different media and materials to explore queer aesthetics and the queer potential of various chemical substances.

Deliberate exaggeration has always been a queer strategy to overcome (hetero-)normative ideas. In the context of the exhibition, it is repeatedly used or broken thematically, methodically or aesthetically. Control and and the loss of it equally become artistic means to queer notions of naturalness or to question social norms with regard to the body, health and desire and to address affects such as shame and lust.

Based on the examination of various (il)legalised agents, human body fluids, natural and synthetic essences, known and unknown foodstuffs or stimulants, the artistic works negotiate social ideas of normality and standardisation. The photographs, installations, sculptures and videos are dedicated to queer temporalities and futures. They oscillate between conscious moderation and deliberate intemperance and examine definitions and limits of excess and indulgence.

The exhibition makes clear that different substances and their use can not only be personally meaningful when they become therapeutic, life-sustaining or self-identifying. It also shows the political relevance of various substances that enable access to social spaces and participation or create community in collective rituals. 

The result is a wildly dosed cocktail of artistic positions that question binaries, blur categories, shift boundaries and thus create moments of the in-between that often move between jouissance and queer self-awareness and death drive. They culminate in a multitude of queer utopias and let them become reality for a brief moment.

With works by

Anastasia Almosova, Cemre Bayatlier, Ying Chen, Philipp Dollinger, Paula Durinova, Mattia Friso  und Agata Hörttrich, Ernst August Graefe, Beril Ece Güler, Samuel Haitz, Elin Laut, Carmen Ng, Won Park, Yule Post, Toni Prahl, Paloma Schnitzer, Kuba Stępień, Berkay Soykan, Yang Xuechun, Aliaksandra Yakubouskaya