UNRULY MIRRORS
Between Skin and Stance

About the Project

UNRULY MIRRORS explores beauty salons across East and Central Asia as spaces of contradiction—sites where normative ideals are reproduced, but also where intimacy, negotiation, and subtle forms of resistance take shape.

Beauty practices are never neutral. They reflect social norms, economic pressures, and cultural narratives, and are deeply entangled with phenotypical stereotypes, traditional gender roles, and socio-economic structures. They shape not only how we see ourselves, but also our access to participation in society and our sense of agency.

We ask: 

Open Call

The Goethe-Institutes in Almaty, Hongkong, Peking, Seoul, Taschkent, Tokyo and Ulaan Bator invite artists to submit works or project proposals engaging with these questions. An international jury will select seven contributions—one from each location. The chosen projects will receive funding and be presented in a shared traveling exhibition starting in spring 2027.

Public Program & Publications

The exhibition is accompanied by a diverse public programme featuring talks, workshops, film screenings, readings, and performances. Wherever possible, these activities will take place in a temporary pop-up beauty salon as a space that makes existing beauty norms visible, questions them, and invites audiences to experience alternative narratives and perspectives.

An exhibition catalogue will be developed in collaboration with Missy Magazine, the Berlin-based bimonthly print publication dedicated to pop culture, politics, and feminism. The project will continue in Germany at the end of 2027 in cooperation with Grand Beauty, a Leipzig-based, award-winning transcultural initiative for beauty, diversity, and dialogue that brings together beauty practitioners with and without migration backgrounds.