by Olivia Noss // June 12, 2026
In a time before social media, queer publications offered a lifeline to those isolated within their small towns. They were a source of escape for many young people and, in some cases, their only foray into queer culture in general. The Schwules Museum’s latest exhibition, ‘Cruising the Countryside – Rural Queer Lives,’ offers a cross-section of queer printed matter and paraphernalia that paints a dynamic picture of the lives led by queer people in remote areas across Germany. In alignment with the museum’s curatorial style, the show is research-heavy and informative, centering on documentary films and archival materials that offer insight into the ways in which queer people have built and sustained rural communities over time.
‘Cruising the Countryside – Rural Queer Lives’ Key Visual // Copyright Studio Erika
The show guides visitors through a maze of visual stimuli that begins with archival materials and progresses into more contemporary works. Magazines, performance flyers, booklets and concert posters flood the first wall, which is plastered with the kind of charming floral wallpaper that might be found in a German country house. Two paintings of young queer people lounging in sunny, bucolic landscapes accent the wall in ornate gold frames. In one, two young men lie languidly in the sun, a picnic basket filled with fruits and baked goods at their legs, a vision of queer bliss and respite. These paintings offset the more DIY aesthetic of traditional queer zines, such as a hot pink Xerox printout by Uferlos e.V. from 2003, depicting two women sprawled on a bed kissing. There’s also a lesbian pulp novel with the raunchy title ‘The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories,’ portraying a buxom brunette seductress, horse whip in hand, tempting an innocent blonde—a premise classic to the genre.
‘Cruising the Countryside – Rural Queer Lives,’ 2026, installation view // Photo by Patricia Sevilla Ciordia
As the show continues, the works adopt a more documentary approach to illustrating queer rural life. Visitors can access several documentaries, one of which is a set of interviews with TIN (trans, intersex and non-binary) adolescents who experience different hardships, including discrimination, costly medical procedures and crises of identity. Meanwhile, Therese Koppe’s film tracks the founder of an art farm in Brandenburg, called Kunsthof Lietzen, run by lesbian couple Erika Stürmer-Alex and Christine Müller-Stosch. The farm offers an enclave for women artists engaging in painting, sculpture and other media. A third film traces members of a Women’s Resistance Camp in Hunsrück, and their engagement in anti-war activism in the 1980s into the 90s. Together, these films present challenges faced by elderly and queer youth alike, and the power they gain by acting in solidarity with one another.
Christine Müller-Stosch and Erika Stürmer Alex, Kunsthof Lietzen, from the series ‘Untergehakt und fröhlich kraftvoll ausschreitend,’ Lena Rosa Händle, Lietzen, 2022 // Courtesy of Lena Rosa Händle
Queer farming initiatives occupy a large portion of the show as well, revealing a unique avenue through which rural queers might cohabitate and enrich each other’s lives. Most notably, the Rabelades Farm Collective, a Black, queer-led farming project in Brandenburg, is a reclamation of the pastoral as a site of liberation, political organizing and eco-justice. The museum also presents objects from people’s day-to-day lives, featuring quotes about their significance to their queer identity—a bandana or a carabiner, for example, that might have served as a covert signal of one’s queer inclinations. While the inclusion of these belongings tends towards the saccharine, they offer a charming insight into how people outside of Berlin adopt queer aesthetics to communicate in coded ways with one another, and how this coded language has morphed at different paces in distinct regions over time.
Pancho Assoluto: ‘Hermann, Milchbauer und Geflügelhalter, D-Pommersfelden,’ 2019, from the series ‘out there’ // Courtesy of Pancho Assoluto
It is easy to take Berlin for granted as a queer haven. With the rise of right-wing politics nationwide, it is all the more important to offer vital lifelines to those who cannot reap the benefits of an in-person community. Today, many young people face financial challenges given the limited work available in rural regions, and experience difficulty breaking out of their provincial towns. At the same time, queer elders existing outside of traditional hetero familial structures are often not granted the same support from younger generations, facing a declining network as they age. This show serves as an uplifting declaration of the merit of interconnectedness, while proposing an alternative to the often stifling experience of queer city life. While it is still very difficult to be outwardly queer in many parts of Germany, ‘Cruising the Countryside’ is a testament to the ways in which queerness can thrive, even flourish, in sometimes adverse conditions, through a commitment to shared identity and purpose.
Exhibition Info
Schwules Museum
Group Show: ‘Cruising the Countryside – Rural Queer Lives’
Exhibition: May 1–Nov. 2, 2026
schwulesmuseum.de
Lützowstraße 73, 10785 Berlin, click here for map
