Rottöne – An Interactive Art Project about Menstruation

The topic of menstruation is carries shame for a lot of people. Although times are slowly changing, many people still feel they have to hide their cycle. Yet, teenagers in particular can benefit from a society that deals openly and creatively with menstruation. This also includes fathers, brothers and partners.

In June 2023, we launched the interactive art project ROTTÖNE as part of the Berlin art festival “48 Hours Neukölln”. Our project consisted of an exhibition that displayed interviews with people who grew up and were socialised with the topic of menstruation in various countries and ways. In the midst of this exhibition, our visitors were invited to explore and express their own experiences artistically. Are there things that are too embarrassing to talk about? How do you experience your partner’s menstruation? What happens when you experiment with red paint and it becomes “gross” at some point?

These questions and many more were addressed by over 300 people during the art project. Finally, we created a pocket calendar that shows the interviews from the exhibition as well as a selection of 12 works of art that were created by our visitors.

You can find all of the interviews here: choose between English and German.

If you’re interested in the pocket calendar, check out my portfolio page.