Distanced Intimacy

Chicago, USA and Berlin, Germany

2020 and 2021

Distance Intimacy explores non-mutual language as a mode of connection shaped by distance, misalignment, and difference. The work reflects on love and intimacy not as conditions of mutual understanding, but as relationships negotiated through tension, rendition, and partial comprehension. Drawing on Islamic theological perspectives – particularly religious discourses surrounding pigs – the piece examines how belief systems structure intimacy, proximity, and exclusion. By holding linguistic and ideological dissonance in view, Distance Intimacy reconsiders intimacy as a relational process formed through ethical friction, cultural boundaries, and sustained acts of engagement rather than resolution.

Curation: Ulrike Riebel (Berlin)

Photos and video: Oleksandra Chuprina (Chicago)