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Sick in the City: Investigating Queerness and Disability in Public Urban Space

Partners: University of Atypical (Belfast, Northern Ireland) and COVEN BERLIN (Berlin)

Four people stand on a raised wooden platform with blue light underneath. They are all wearing different whimsical, silly and medieval-inspired costumes. The person on the ground, crawling towards us wears a blue mask painted with tears and a smile. A scarf covers their head. The person on the front-right wears black, goat-like horns and a billowy white shirt with large sleeves. Behind them is a person wearing gold tinsel and a huge cone hat dyed in rainbow colours. Next to them, at the back left of the platform, is a person wearing reddish robes and a short cylindrical flat-topped hat. The white walls behind them are covered in colourful, line drawings of medieval symbols like knights on horseback and dragons.
Image © COVEN Berlin, Eric Tschernow

"University of Atypical and COVEN BERLIN are delighted to have been chosen as one of the 2025-26 Cultural Bridge partnerships. The organisations first started talking back in 2022 about a shared response to the exclusion experienced by queer d/Deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent artists when applying for or participating in international residencies. This led to collective research on how to make art residencies more accessible, an artist residency exchange between our cities (both virtual and in-person), and a hope that we could continue learning from our shared and different cultural contexts of Berlin and Belfast. This new partnership programme will grow the relationship by pairing disabled artists from Berlin and Belfast to co-create new work together with disabled and queer communities in both cities. The funding will enable artist residencies, community development workshops, and exciting new arts activity in August in Berlin with the event series ‘Sick of the City', and then in October in Belfast at the Bounce Arts Festival. This work is queer and disabled-led and rooted in taking back public space for bodies and identities which are frequently excluded or made invisible. We are so excited to see how our communities and artists will work together, learn from each other, and how we can imagine new futures for both our cities."


University of Atypical and COVEN BERLIN 

About the partners

University of Atypical for Arts and Disability (UofA) is the leading disabled-led arts organisation in Northern Ireland. We want a society where everyone can positively explore and express their creativity, curiosity and talents through the arts.

The work we do takes an empowerment-based approach towards d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people's involvement in the arts as audience members and as practitioners. Our board, staff, freelance artists, audiences and volunteers represent the d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent community. Through our flagship creative programs - including the Atypical Gallery, d/Deaf and Disabled Artists Support Fund, and the annual Bounce Arts Festival - we support and showcase the best in innovative disability arts locally and internationally. Through our partnership work, including the Arts and Disability Access Awards, we support other arts organisations to improve access to the arts for D/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people.

COVEN BERLIN is a queer art and curatorial collective focused on feminism, love, gender, and sexuality. Founded in 2013, it blossomed when some queers answered a Craigslist ad. We are Harley Aussoleil, Frances Breden, Lorena Juan, Judy Landkammer, Kiona Hagen Niehaus, and Louise Trueheart.

COVEN BERLIN wants to create an open sphere to defy systemic violence and inequality, and is devoted to emotional processing, collective healing, political reassessment, paying fairly, and supportive time management strategies. The collective nurtures cultural work, in Berlin and online, in the form of embodied affective research and digital hybrid curatorial approaches, always with a breath of humor.

We put on exhibitions, events, and run an online magazine and newsletter. Our work has been shown at Gropius Bau, ICI Berlin, Galerie Im Turm, nGbK, Schwules* Museum, and more. We're currently working on our new magazine theme to premiere this spring.


A woman with long blonde hair is seated on stage, playing an electric guitar and singing into a microphone. Her eyes are closed. She is wearing a colorful, flowing dress with a galaxy pattern. Behind her, a wooden acoustic guitar is propped up on a stand. On her left, a petite, blond woman wearing a red blouse is interpreting the performance in British Sign Language with expressive gestures. They are framed by silhouettes of the audience seated with wine glasses at candlelight tables.
Image © University of Atypical