TAT_Unbinding_Bodies

unBinding Bodies. Lotus Shoes and Corset

Exhibition
March 24 – August 31, 2023
Opening March 23, 6 – 10 p.m.

Tieranatomisches Theater
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Campus Nord, Haus 3
Philippstr. 13
10115 Berlin

For a thousand years, Chinese girls had their feet bound to keep them as small as possible. Europeans looked at this ideal of beauty with a mixture of fascination and astonishment. In the 19th century, doctors also became interested in the so-called “lotus feet“. Many such specimens can still be found in scientific collections today.

The exhibition shows these sensitive things against the background of social, colonial and medical history. It examines foot-binding as a situated practice that not only restricted women but also had an identity-forming effect. One focus is on the interplay of self-perceptions and foreign perceptions and the intertwining of Chinese and European emancipation movements: Parallel to the initiatives for “foot liberation”, women in Europe fought against the corset. The exhibition gives women a voice.

Further information about the exhibition can be found on the TAT website.