Visible Love At Mitte Garten: Love And Let Love

It’s the second year in a row for our #VisibleLove exhibition to have its official event at Berlin’s Mitte Garten, an open space in the middle of a buzzing downtown area where queer life and love are there for anyone to see. After Paris, London, Barcelona, Stockholm and Berlin, we have only one city left on our list as our exhibition is about to come to an end with our images being on display in Copenhagen from the 12th of August. With #VisibleLove growing up fast in front of our eyes, we wanted to take a minute to look back and tell you why this years’ event at Mitte Garten was a milestone for the exhibition series and in our fight for queer visibility.

One year ago, when we were standing in the early hours in front of Mitte Garten’s gorgeous front windows facing the street, we were overwhelmed by what was the manifestation of #VisibleLove. We gave the whole store an over-the-top queer makeover, wrapping Mitte Garten in the images of Florian Hetz, Shane Reynolds, AdeY, Kostis Fokas, Leo Maki, Agustin Hernandez and Laurence Philomène. On that particular summer night and with the party over, Berlin’s empty Neue Schönhauser Straße felt like the calmest, most peaceful place in the whole universe. We were exhausted, hardly standing, but happier than ever as it finally sank in what we just managed to pull off. Yet none of us could foresee that a year on, we will be standing at the very same spot, looking at the very same windows, but this time with #VisibleLove being our first large scale international exhibition conquering five countries in Europe. When did this happen?

They say, if you want to change the world, you need to start within your closest circles and the very environment you are living in. Berlin is our home of choice and just like for most of the people living in this city, it’s a love-hate relationship for us too. Even in a place so vibrantly diverse and colourful, societal progress can seem to be happening painfully slow, so slow that sometimes we all question if things are really heading in the right direction. But now, at Mitte Garten, we found assurance once again that there is a point in what we are doing.

This year, hundreds of people showed up at our super special #VisibleLove event, not even counting the thousands visiting the Berlin-leg of the exhibition series at H&M Mitte Garten, Weekday, Monki, COS, & Other Stories and H&M Alexa. We filled the rooms and the gorgeous backyard of Mitte Garten with real life diversity, big time Berlin summer vibes and of course, some of the hottest outfits of the planet on that given day. Surrounded by the images of #VisibleLove’s all-star lineup of photographers including Lindsay Ryklief, Jess T. Dugan, Rob Tennent, Allie & Jesse, Soraya T. Zaman and Leo Maki, there was a bold new feeling that came over us. It was a feeling of togetherness, one of belonging, a sense of community, if you like. We were a crowd of very, very, very different people with different mindsets, backgrounds and priorities, yet driven by the same principle: love and let love.

We had an amazing night celebrating our differences. A night full of love that was indeed visible. We premiered Container Love’s latest original short, the Hidden Dimension, a documentary featuring Polish photographer and visual artist Leo Maki. Just like our Love Has No Label series that’s currently on a tour making an appearance in the programs of film festivals worldwide, the Hidden Dimension was born as a collaboration between Container Love’s Founder Christian Ruess and Director Ben Galster. Shot during the Pride in both Berlin and Warsaw, it’s a film that we take great pride in and that resonated especially well with our guests at Mitte Garten.

That night we embraced, laughed and after having a drink or two, we even got our fair share of awkward yet somehow still utterly wholesome conversations on the dancefloor. It was magic of the best kind.

Then in the early hours, we were heading home ourselves. No time for dreaming though, at least not today and not for us, as #VisibleLove is far from being over. After Paris, London, Barcelona, Stockholm and Berlin, our exhibition is on display in Copenhagen. And now, we can’t even imagine where we will be in yet another year from now. But one thing is certain: whatever comes next, we’ll be there and we’ll be there together with you.

Some say that you can’t work and celebrate at the same time, yet our #VisibleDinner was the perfect example on how you can bring together people of different backgrounds in the most stylish way, opening the door to even more new opportunities. Enjoy the pictures of both events taken by Berlin-based photographer and sweetheart Sven Serkis!