Exhibition Talk: Beyond the Hay Bale

Queer Rural Stories Between Continuity and Discontinuity

The countryside is more than just a geographic category: people live there or associate it with memories, feelings, and fantasies. Our personal life experiences shape how we perceive and experience the countryside—as a home or a place of longing, as a place of community, of confinement, or of new beginnings.

In this exhibition talk, visitors are invited to explore their own connection to the countryside. How does our life story shape our perception? Do people enjoy living here, or are they simply unable to leave? And what is queer about rural areas?

Inspired by objects, images, and stories, the session begins with a brief exercise using pen and paper to explore each person’s own relationship with the countryside. Afterward, curator Collin Klugbauer and Fabian Schrader, producer of the interview podcast “Somewhere Over The Hay Bale,” will discuss queer life, activism, and relationships in rural areas.

Fabian Schrader is a theater educator from Berlin and was the host of “Somewhere Over the Hay Bale,” the only interview podcast dedicated exclusively to queer life in rural areas, from 2020 to 2024. In 40 episodes, people share their queer stories from beyond the big city. As a theater professional, he aims not only to archive history and stories but also to bring them to life through personal narratives in order to understand social structures. Fabian grew up in Westdorf, Saxony-Anhalt. More info: | Listen to all episodes:

Collin Klugbauer is the curator of the exhibition “Cruising the Countryside: Queer Life in the Countryside.” Collin heads exhibition management at the Schwules Museum and grew up in a village.

Meeting point: At the exhibition space

Next date:

• Date Thursday, 06/August/2026 18:00 bis 20:00
• Venue Schwules Museum
• Address Lützowstraße 73, 10785 Berlin-Tiergarten