Tenants of Tender Armour
April – December 2026
ACUD Galerie

“The notion of the body is tied to the idea of the individual and conceived of as bounded and complete, a productive and ableist entity to be fixed and saved.
But where is the place for, and the recognition of bodies that do not correspond to this framework; of bodies that do not have the possibility to access the protective resources deposited there?”*

Tenants of Tender Armour is a ten-month program (April–December 2026) that unfolds in three exhibition acts and accompanying events. It explores shielding as a material practice and a micropolitical gesture. Shielding manifests itself in the context of war and conflict, where bodies function as literal shields, but also in everyday life: in small movements and gestures that people use to protect themselves from visibility or to cope with structural violence. These embodied tactics translate large socio-political forces into intimate physical codes and movements. Our program takes this ambivalence as its starting point. Shielding is understood as a sonic and relational practice that creates permeable membranes of delicate protective spaces.

Participating artists:
Josefin Arnell, Jordan Deal, Dina El Kaisy Friemuth, Manuel Goetz, Samuel Guerrero, Kasra Jalilipour, Julia Selin, Joshua Tarelle Reid, TABLOID Press, Zhiyuan Yang
… more to be announced

Act I
30.04–28.06.2026
Echo Alliances
Cocurated with Carmen Herold

Act II
23.07–20.09.2026
A Charm of Powerful Trouble

Act III
01.10–06.12.2026
Orbital Decay

The project is curated by:
Colette Patterson & Gabriela Matuszewska

Visual identification: Charlotte Rohde

In collaboration with Goethe-Institut im Exil

Curated by ACUD Galerie

ACUD Galerie is funded by the Basisförderung der Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt.

*Noeth, S., Umathum, S., and Jansa, J. (2024). Shielding. transcript Verlag.