What can a body say without using words?

With Bodies that Speak Haus. Kunst. Mitte. turns its attention to one of art’s oldest subjects and, at the same time, to a theme of immediate contemporary relevance: the human body. Following the highly successful exhibition Faces of Mind, the institution once again brings together a group of outstanding women artists, focusing on the many ways in which bodies can be represented, experienced, and reimagined.

The exhibition features 17 women artists from four generations. All live and work in Berlin and engage intensively with the body in their artistic practices. Many are important voices of their respective generations and have exhibited internationally. Their backgrounds are diverse, including Iran, China, the USA, Turkey, Poland, Japan, and Germany. What connects them is not a shared artistic school, but the city in which they live and an intensive engagement with the body as a means of artistic expression.

Berlin becomes a place of encounter and exchange. For decades, the city has attracted artists from around the world and has been a place where different ways of life, cultural backgrounds, and artistic positions come together. Bodies that Speak makes this diversity visible and gives space in particular to women artists who shape Berlin’s art scene today.

The female body is at the centre of the exhibition – but not as an isolated subject. Birth, sexuality, coming of age, illness, ageing, and death are part of human life. At the same time, they are shaped in different ways by gender roles, social expectations, and cultural conventions. The works on view make this tension visible, moving from highly personal images and stories towards questions that extend far beyond the feminine.