Beyond the High. The Chemsex Experience

BEYOND THE HIGH. THE CHEMSEX EXPERIENCE: CRISIS, RESILIENCE AND COMMUNITY
May 29 - June 28, 2025
curated by Club Havera (Sheri Avraham and Gabi Moncayo-Asan)

artists: John Hanning, Ed Firth, Sheri Avraham , Gabriel Moncayo Asan, Galo Moncayo Asan, Sascha Knorr, Parham Rostan Abadi, Yasemin duru, Jonas Baur, Maél

production by: club havera (Sheri Avraham, Gabi Moncayo-Asan, Jonas Baur)

in collaboration with: Queer Base Vienna, Aids Hilfe Vienna & funding from: Stadt Wien, Bezirk Neubau

Opening: 29 May @ 16-20h •. Closing: 28 June @ 18h
Performances: 31 May •. 7 June •. 21 June •. 28 June @ 18h

Beyond the High. The Chemsex Experience: Crisis, Resilience, and Community examines the socio-affective terrain that emerges post-climax. Those liminal spaces where desire and exhaustion converge. It interrogates communal responses to stigmatized practices, exploring frameworks of radical care, post-traumatic resilience, and the dismantling of internalized shame. Healing here is not conceived as individual recovery, but as a collective, interdependent process—one rooted in mutual recognition, social kinship.

Healing here is not conceived as individual recovery, but as a collective, interdependent process—one rooted in mutual recognition and social kinship. In a world where digital intimacy often replaces physical connection, the chemsex phenomenon emerges/surfaces as both a pursuit of liberation and a manifestation of deep longing. This exhibition explores the intricate dynamics of desire, kinship, and the search for belonging within queer communities. At its core, chemsex — the fusion of chemical substances with sexual experiences—reflects complex motivations: the quest for pleasure, trauma relief, and the yearning for connection. While it offers moments of euphoria, it also exposes individuals to risks, including mental health challenges, dependency, and the erosion of boundaries.

Beyond the High lingers in the stillness following the climax, solitude in the tender hours where echoes remain, but language fails. It examines communal responses to stigmatized practices, exploring frameworks of care, resilience, and the dismantling of internalized shame. This exhibition asks: How do we heal into love again? It imagines healing not as individual recovery, but as a shared, interdependent process rooted in mutual recognition, chosen kinship.

EVENTS
Opening: 29 May, 2025 @ 16-20h (performance by Bicha Boo Collective, Mzamo Nondlwana & Pêdra Costa)

Opening hours during Independent Space Index 2025: 30 May - 01 June, 2025 @ 14h-18h

Performances: Saturdays, 31 May •. 7 June •. 21 June •. 28 June @ 18h

Closing event: 28 June 2025 @ 18h (performance by: Sheri Avraham and friends)

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Artist talks:

03 June 2025 @ 19h: Join for a conversation with the artists Ed Firth (UK), Sheri Avraham (IL), Gabriel Moncayo Asan (EC), Galo Moncayo Asan (EC), Sascha Knorr (DE), Parham Rostan Abadi (IR).

19 June 2025 @ 21h: Join for a conversation with the artist John Hanning together with Mag.a Andrea Brunner (Managing Director, Aids Hilfe Wien)

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Community Meetings:

(No registration required / Open to all who are curious, concerned, or simply desire to listen and learn)

5 June 2025 @ 19:00 - 20:30 (Moderated by Mag. Willi Waitz (Gruppenpsychoanalyse)

Community Meeting: Gruppenselbsterfahrung – angeleitete Werkbetrachtung und offener Austausch
In this Community Meeting, we invite visitors to a shared moment of reflection and conversation. Under the theme Gruppenselbsterfahrung, we will explore selected artworks from the exhibition Beyond the High through guided observation and personal responses. This session encourages an open exchange—without judgment or pressure—on the themes, emotions, and questions that arise.

Together, we will slow down, take a closer look, and reflect on how the works resonate with our own experiences. The aim is not to interpret art “correctly,” but to create a collective space for awareness, vulnerability, and mutual listening. No prior knowledge is needed—just curiosity and openness

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12 June 2025 @ 19:00 - 20:30 (With Mag. Raimund Fichter moderated by Club Havera [Jonas Baur / Gabi Moncayo-Asan / Sheri Avraham])

Community Meeting: zu Scham, internalisierter Homophobie und Gesundheitspolitik
This Community Meeting opens up a space for collective conversation on some of the deeper emotional and political layers that Beyond the High touches on. Together with the audience, we will talk about shame, internalized homophobia, and their entanglement with health politics—particularly in queer and gay male contexts.

This is an invitation to share, ask, and listen. The session aims to connect personal experience with broader social structures, and to hold space for both vulnerability and critique. How do systems shape our self-image? What remains unsaid in public health discourse? And how can we rethink care beyond stigma?

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19 June 2025 @ 19:00 - 20:30 (With Mag. Raimund Fichter moderated by Club Havera [Jonas Baur / Gabi Moncayo-Asan / Sheri Avraham])

Community Meeting: Q&A – Perspektiven aus Psychologie und Sozialarbeit zu Chemsex und sozialer Gerechtigkeit
In this Community Meeting, we open the floor to voices from psychology and social work to explore the complexities of chemsex through the lens of care, access, and social justice. How do professionals navigate the tension between individual autonomy, harm reduction, and structural inequality? What support systems exist—and which are still missing?

This Q&A offers space for questions, exchange, and critical reflection. Together, we’ll look at how mental health, substance use, and queer lives intersect, and how a more just and inclusive approach to care might look like.

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26 June 2025 @ 19:00 - 20:30 (With Mag. Raimund Fichter moderated by Club Havera [Jonas Baur / Gabi Moncayo-Asan / Sheri Avraham])

Community Meeting: Q&A – Chancen der Psychotherapie mit Chemsex-Schwerpunkt
This Community Meeting focuses on the therapeutic possibilities and challenges when working with people who engage in chemsex. What can psychotherapy offer in terms of support, stabilization, and healing? How can it respond to the specific needs of queer communities without pathologizing desire or pleasure?

In this Q&A, psychotherapists and participants are invited into an open conversation about approaches, boundaries, and hopes for a more affirming mental health landscape. We will explore how therapy can become a resource—grounded in respect, empathy, and social awareness.