Out of Love with Love

To love someone romantically is to experience a strong desire for union with someone who is deemed entirely unique. But is this intense emotional experience a universal experience, something that is characteristically and quintessentially human, or is it merely a sociocultural construct that belongs to a particular time and place? Is romantic love an artificial emotion for which we are programmed by popular culture?

With the rise of queer culture, the ideals of romantic love have been challenged. Polyamory, fuck-friendships and open relationships arrange a new set of intimacies where traditional romance is objected. Conventional romantic love is becoming more and more oppressive for the young individuals living in our current consumerist society, where they are exposed to increasing professional pressures combined with an addiction to "disposable entertainment" and individualism that leaves little space for romantic experiences.

In this context, the need of "rethinking romantic love" seems unavoidable. Which social transformations are due to occur during the next decades? Or will this be the end of romantic love as we know it? Which gender-related consequences may this cultural shift lead to?

Berlin-based artists Angela Kaisers and Laura Genevieve Jones will embark on a creative journey through love, lust and everything in-between under the guidance of gender specialist Lorena Juan Gutiérrez in order to find the answers to a question that has been around as long as humans have been there to ask it.