Bonn's Bold Exhibition Rewrites the Cultural History of Sex Work
Bonn's Bold Exhibition Rewrites the Cultural History of Sex Work
Bonn's Bold Exhibition Rewrites the Cultural History of Sex Work
Bonn's Bundeskunsthalle Explores the Cultural History of Sex Work in Over 800 Objects—Curated with Input from Researchers in the Field
The exhibition at Bonn's Bundeskunsthalle traces society's relationship with sex work through more than 800 artifacts, developed in collaboration with sex workers and researchers in the field.
The show opens with a striking piece: a patchwork quilt by sex worker and artist Ernestine Pastorello, depicting harrowing scenes from a brothel—a young woman crouched on the floor, a police raid, a suicide. The exhibition also examines representations of prostitution in antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the 19th century.
Yet the focus lies on the past hundred years, featuring disturbing documents—from brothels in Nazi concentration camps to the stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS. Eva Kraus, director of the Bundeskunsthalle, highlights the deep contradictions in how society has treated sex work: "For centuries, there has been repression, persecution, and forced labor—especially under the Nazis. It's a history marked by extreme hypocrisy."
Standing before a map pinpointing brothels in concentration camps, Kraus describes a "double standard": "Society lived both sides of the coin, and this is something we must confront—particularly as a collective responsibility."
The sex worker collective Objects of Desire, which campaigns against forced prostitution, contributed its archives to the exhibition. Documentary photos show its members at protests, their placards demanding: Never talk about us without us. This insider perspective shapes the Bonn exhibition, Sex Work: A Cultural History.
Isaak, a sex worker and co-curator, appears at the opening lightly masked and declines to give his full name—a common practice in the industry. He prefers the term sex work over prostitution.
"Calling it sex work shifts the focus to labor—and we're not saying this work is inherently good. The struggle is about labor rights, against stigma, against discrimination. But it isn't an identity in itself."
The exhibition devotes significant space to sex workers' fight against discrimination, their artwork resonating powerfully amid city maps marking red-light districts from Bonn to Cologne to Hamburg.
Sources: - Objects of Desire, co-curators of the Bundeskunsthalle exhibition - Eva Kraus, Director, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn