Roses Have Thorns

Rosa von Praunheim

Rosen haben Dornen (Roses Have Thorns) is the title of a retrospective exhibition at the Haus am Lützowplatz which will open the evening before Rosa von Praunheim’s seventieth birthday. This exhibition brings together the full diversity of the unique Berlin artist’s projects for the first time. The seven thematic rooms will present not only clips from Rosa von Praunheim’s major films, from Die Bettwurst to the most recent short film projects, but also large-format photographs, poems and pictures. Visitors can immerse themselves in von Praunheim’s world and learn about his ‘dreams of sex and love and politics, of restlessness and poetry’. Rosa von Praunheim, who was born in the main prison of Riga in 1942 and grew up in Berlin, wrote his first book in 1967 and began making films at the same time. His legendary film Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers, sondern die Situation, in der er lebt (It is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives), shot in 1970, was intensely discussed and led to the founding of over fifty gay groups.