Ugly Things_Unlearning Beauty: A Critical Exhibition at Queer Museum Vienna

This exhibition explores the fine line between cheap trash and expensive taste, challenging the dichotomies that determine what is considered valuable enough for museum display. It draws parallels between the labels 'queer' and 'ugly thing,' interrogating the motives behind such devaluations to expose and dismantle them.

Ugly Things_Unlearning Beauty walks the fine line that distinguishes the affinity for cheap trash from expensive taste, while simultaneously undermining that very dichotomy. We closely examine the authority that decides who and what has a place in the museum and is thus deemed valuable enough to gain entrance, visibility and longevity. Queer is a term that is still frequently used to devalue someone or something, to label them as deviant, perverse or disgusting – perhaps even ugly. In a similar way, some people use the expression “ugly thing” to objectify and dehumanize — when applied to a person. This exhibition draws parallels between the two labels and interrogates the motives and mechanisms behind such denominations — with the goal of exposing and dismantling them. A joyful reminder: punch up, don’t kick down!

Entry to the exhibition is free.