Velvet and the Creatures & Leoni Marie Hübner, Daniel Krikunov, Robby Tijujas and Dyane Prozak
Blood, Sweat and Rhinestones
Opening: 22.8.2025, 19-23 Uhr
Performance by Big Juicy Emma, 20 Uhr
Exhibition: 23.-24.8.2025, 12-18 Uhr
Adresse: hinterconti e.V., Balduinstraße 24, 20359 Hamburg
@big.juicy.emma @velvetatc @l.marie.huebner @kriku.art @robiccup @dyaneprozak @artoffhamburg
#dragart #bloodsweatandrhinestones #queerart #hinterconti #hamburgkunst #artoff #jungekunst #performanceart #dragqueen #hamburgdrag
Blood, Sweat and Rhinestones
Der biblische Vers Lukas 22,44 – „…sein Schweiß war wie große Blutstropfen, die zur Erde fielen“ – diente seit jeher als Bild für intensives körperliches und seelisches Ringen.
Auch der walisische Prediger Christmas Evans griff 1837 in seinen Predigten solche Vorstellungen auf. Berühmt wurde die Redewendung durch Winston Churchills Rede vor dem britischen Unterhaus am 13. Mai 1940: „I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.“ Heute ist sie eine geläufige Metapher für leidenschaftliche Arbeit unter hohem persönlichem Einsatz – und bildet den gedanklichen Ausgangspunkt dieser Ausstellung. Drag steht im Zentrum – als queere, politische Performancekunst, die vor allem für junge Drag Artists häufig mit Selbstausbeutung, finanziellen Hürden und unsicherem Rückhalt verbunden ist. Und doch wird sie mit Hingabe, Stolz und großer Kreativität praktiziert. Rhinestones – Strasssteine – stehen sinnbildlich für den Glamour, der mit einfachsten Mitteln auf kleine Bühnen gebracht wird: glänzend, funkelnd, performativ – aber nicht elitär. Der Ausstellungstitel verweist zugleich auf die Geschichte des Ortes: Einst Verkaufsraum für Fleisch- und Wurstwaren (mit Kühlraum im Keller), später Ort für erotische Massagen am Rand des Kiezes, ist das Hinterconti heute ein Raum für junge Kunst, Performance und gesellschaftspolitischen Diskurs. Blood, Sweat and Rhinestones vereint vier Positionen, die Drag nicht nur zeigen, sondern kritisch untersuchen – in ästhetischer, medialer und politischer Dimension.
Leonie Marie Hübner und Akasha arbeiten an der Schnittstelle von Fotografie, Performance und digitaler Simulation.
Daniel Krikunov transformiert Headpieces aus der amerikanischen Showgirl-Tradition zu gegenständlich-performativen Erweiterungen seiner Drag-Persona Big Juicy Emma.
Robertas Tijusas überführt Big Juicy Emma in ein großformatiges Gemälde – ein ikonisches Reframing.
Dyane Prozak bespielt den ehemaligen Kühlraum und fragt, wie Drag sich akustisch erfahren lässt – im Dunkel, jenseits des Visuellen.
Eine Ausstellung über Arbeit, Transformation, Glanz: Überlebenskunst in High Heels.
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Blood, Sweat and Rhinestones
The biblical verse Luke 22:44 – “…his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” – has long served as a powerful image of intense physical and emotional struggle. The Welsh preacher Christmas Evans also drew on such imagery in his sermons as early as 1837. The phrase itself became widely known through Winston Churchill’s speech to the British House of Commons on May 13, 1940: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” Today, the expression serves as a common metaphor for passionate labor under intense personal sacrifice – and it forms the conceptual starting point of this exhibition. At the center is drag – a queer, political performance art that, especially for young drag artists, often involves self-exploitation, financial precarity, and uncertain support. And yet it is practiced with pride, passion, and remarkable creativity. Rhinestones – small, shimmering stand-ins for luxury – symbolize the glamour brought to small stages with modest means: glittering, dazzling, performative – but never elitist. The exhibition title also references the history of the space: once a butcher’s shop with a meat locker in the basement, later used for erotic massage at the edge of the red light district, the Hinterconti is now a venue for emerging art, performance, and socio-political discourse. Blood, Sweat and Rhinestones brings together four artistic positions that don’t just present drag, but critically engage with it – in its aesthetic, media-based, and political dimensions:
Leonie Marie Hübner and Akasha work at the intersection of photography, performance, and digital simulation.
Daniel Krikunov transforms American showgirl headpieces into sculptural, performative extensions of his drag persona Big Juicy Emma.
Robertas Tijusas reimagines Big Juicy Emma in a large-scale painting – an act of iconic reframing.
Dyane Prozak stages a sound installation in the former meat locker, asking how drag can be experienced acoustically – in the dark, beyond the visual.
An exhibition about labor, transformation, sparkle – the art and struggle of living in high heels.
Mit freundlicher Unterstützung der Behörde für Kultur und Medien Hamburg
Iss deinen Reis auf und krümle nicht. Wenn du nämlich krümelst, dann kommt der Vogel und pickt die Krümel auf. Und wenn er damit fertig ist, dann pickt er deine Augen aus. Also: Geh schnell schlafen, sonst holt dich der Vogel
Performance Festival VxXXX // Freitag, 03.04.2026 // 19-24 Uhr // Danny Banany, Soma Boronkay, Chardonnay Emerald, Blessless Mahoney, Sweætshops® – IMPERSON, + Special Guest, hosted by Stefan Mildenberger
Performance Festival VxXXX
Freitag, 03.04.2026 19-24 Uhr
Danny Banany
Soma Boronkay
Chardonnay Emerald
Blessless Mahoney
Sweætshops® – IMPERSON
+ Special Guest
hosted by Stefan Mildenberger
hinterconti
Balduinstraße 24
20359 Hamburg
Danny Banany (any pronouns, respectfully) is a performer, poet, timeless wizard and a secret visual artist who likes to link and layer. Their practice is an unpredictable mess until it isn’t. The work encompasses neurological filtering of realities, reflecting on queerness in perception, layering of beliefs and facts and codes of communication. Inspired and joined by the sensitive and poetic soundscopes of multifaceted artist POZSI B. KOLOR Danny brings pattern layering and filtering onto several dimensions to address the mechanics of reality clashes, synchronicity, memetic powers and challenges in digital era global erosion and deconstruction of norms and ethics.
Soma Boronkay was born in Hungary and studied dramaturgy and theater studies in Budapest. His academic work has specialized in the field of documentary theater. For several years, Soma Boronkay has consistently worked as a dramaturg and assistant director at the Proton Theatre in Budapest. He has collaborated with Kornél Mundruczó on highly regarded international co-productions, such as Imitation of Life (2016, Wiener Festwochen), as well as music theater projects like The Raft of the Medusa (Music: Hans Werner Henze; Ruhrtriennale 2018), Evolution (Ruhrtriennale 2019), and theater productions like Traumland (Theater Luzern 2018), Pieces of a Woman (TR Warszawa 2018), and Liliom (Thalia Theater Hamburg 2019).
Chardonnay Emerald (she/her/they/them) Playing instruments has historically carried different connotations for women and girls. In the West, instruments like the harp or flute have long been seen as “feminine”- meant to keep girls decorative, restrained, and still. Meanwhile, instruments that require force or full-body movement like drums, guitars, or trumpets remain coded as masculine. Then comes the theremin. Invented in 1920 by Lev Termen, it’s too weird to be put in a box and it resists gender entirely. Though being „a stick“ it’s not phallic, not quite tactile, not easily categorized. It’s hysterical, sensual, and absurd – and that’s why I love it. You don’t touch it, but get close enough and it wails. It deliriously shrieks as you flirt with contact. Yes there’s a way to play it „right“, however there’s absolutely no way to do it wrong – the Theremin doesn’t ask you to behave, it dares you to misbehave. Playing music is never just about sound. It’s about performance, risk, expression. To play an instrument with abandon – slutty, silly, throwing-your-whole-body-in-it, unserious, too-much – is to break rules that never served us.
Blessless Mahoney is a philosopher, cultural studies scholar, speleologist, and drag impersonator. She lives and works in Hamburg, reads extensively, and writes. Since 1990, she has created numerous cabaret productions and curated exhibitions and cultural events. Blessless is co-host of the radio program “Zwei Stimmen im Fummel” and, together with her stage partner Didine van der Platenvlotbrug, has been giving action lectures at universities and in museums since 1994.
Next radio broadcast: *Zwei Stimmen im Fummel* Mon, March 30, 2026 (8–10 pm) FSK Radio: Frequencies: 93 MHz (antenna), 101.4 MHz (cable) in Hamburg, Livestream: [http://www.fsk-hh.org/livestream](http://www.fsk-hh.org/livestream)
Sweætshops® presents IMPERSON, a live abstraction of the planet’s most impersonated person, through the lens of the Egyptian Memphite afterlife system of iconisation. exploring supernormal stimulus, the veneration of problematic men, cultural appropriation and primordial loneliness. Sweætshops® (sweXtshops) is a multi-personality enterprise from the birthplace of the industrial revolution. Their practice is dedicated to revealing the sweetshops/sweatshops yin-yang of worldwide societal inequality. Operating primarily through performance initiatives, audiovisual production, and participatory conceptual research via multiple personas. Sweætshops® ethos is rooted in repurposing the 24/7 chaos and noise of pop culture media, mass-produced items and digital trends through the bloody bodily conveyor line. As above, so below: universally familiar “low-brow” symbols are repurposed into new magical frameworks to reveal “high-concepts”.
Mit freundlicher Unterstützung der Behörde für Kultur und Medien Hamburg