Atlas of Reproduction

The exhibition and book opening offers in-depth insights into the research context and enables visitors to tour and discuss the exhibition together with researchers, participating artists and media practitioners. An apéro follows.

Disabled people are still often denied the right to have children. After a joint tour of the exhibition, people with disabilities speak about their experiences of intersectional discrimination and exclusion regarding their reproductive self-determination. How does family planning work in an ableist society? Why is forced sterilisation still permitted in Switzerland? What political strategies exist to confront this oppression? These are among the questions we discuss during this evening.

The event is organised in collaboration with avanti – the network of and for women, lesbians, intersex, non-binary, trans and agender people living with disability or chronic illness.

Would you rather consult an abortion rights activist than a book, to discuss the attack on abortion rights? In our Living Library you can «borrow» an activist engaged with the right to abortion in Switzerland, Germany or Poland for a conversation. Through these exchanges, the challenges of increasingly restrictive abortion policies under pressure from the global right and the everyday work of solidary collectives are made visible.

Childfree is a LARP (Live Action Role Play) about bodily self-determination, empowerment and the possibility of making life-changing decisions and following your own dreams and projects. At its centre is the decision to terminate a pregnancy. This political pro-choice role-playing game was published in French by Axiel Cazeneuve in 2018 and has since been translated into several languages.

In this event we would like to play this role-playing game together. We need about four hours – including joint preparation, one hour of «play» and a joint debrief. «Childfree» is for everyone; whether you have children, want children, do not want children, want to or can give birth yourself or not. You do not need any experience with role-playing games.

To take part you must register, as places are limited. Please contact geko@immerda.ch if you would like to take part or have questions.

Against the backdrop of a palpable social backlash, Fleischlin and Aramburo write letters to their mothers and their children. The result is a personal and poetic account of transformation, demonstrating that being queer, parenthood and traditional social spaces are not mutually exclusive. LETTERS is an attempt to bridge generational, geographical and emotional distances – an attempt at healing and tenderness through the written word.

The Bolivian artist Diego Aramburo grew up in Cochabamba, now lives in Sucre, identifies as non-binary and works internationally. Beatrice Jimmy Fleischlin grew up in a Catholic pig-farming family in Sempach and now lives as a queer performer, dividing her time between Switzerland and Berlin. They will read excerpts from the performance project LETTERS, which will be staged in October at the Kaserne Basel, the Südpol in Lucerne and the Burgbachkeller in Zug.

This is followed by a conversation with Taleo Stüwe, policy officer for reproductive justice at pro familia Germany and advocate for queer-sensitive birth care, and the two artists on the particular challenges queer people face when forming families, becoming parents or shaping care relationships.

When is a decision about sterilisation shaped by coercion? When can it be considered autonomous? And can the two even be distinguished for people living under precarious conditions? Drawing on Mexican sterilisation campaigns from 1960 to the present and proletarian sterilisation policy in early 20th-century Germany, this discussion explores how reproductive decisions can be shaped by both individual agency and broader structures of power.

How have global population policies shaped the lives of marginalised people, and what continues to resonate today? This evening's discussion explores this question on the basis of the presented books «The Gospel of Family Planning: An Intimate Global History» (Bourbonnais 2025, The University of Chicago Press) and «Reproductive Racism: Migration, Birth Control and the Specter of Population» (Schultz 2023, Anthem Press), as well as the work «From Troubled Pasts to Occluded Futures: A Clinic-Based Ethnography of Female Sterilisation in Northwest India» (Sahay 2026, Graduate Institute Geneva). The focus is on groups in the Global South and North whose reproductive decisions were shaped by political intervention. An apéro will be served afterwards.

After a tour of the exhibition, Surangika Jayarathne reports on her research in Sri Lanka, including her encounters with birth mothers who gave their children up for adoption. Social anthropologist Andrea Abraham, head of the Institute Childhood, Youth and Family at BFH Bern, then speaks with two adopted people from Lebanon and South Korea about their personal experiences and insights. An evening that brings different perspectives on adoption together and creates space for encounter.

In collaboration with the REFPER project (BFH) and Brava NGO, we invite you to a tour of the exhibition. The subsequent discussion focuses on the lived realities of refugee women and their access to reproductive healthcare. At the centre is the question of what hurdles arise when reproductive justice meets the harsh structures of the asylum system. Tahmina Tagjeva and Fatma Leblebici then moderate a conversation with visitors.

If you need whisper translation, please contact info@atlas-der-reproduktion.ch by 10 October 2026.

Is reproductive justice compatible with existing asylum systems? At Politforum, representatives from politics, activism, and public authorities come together to explore this urgent question. Bringing diverse perspectives and responsibilities into dialogue, the panel examines what changes are needed—and who must act—to ensure that reproductive rights do not depend on a person's residence status.

Beginning at Kornhausforum with a joint tour of the exhibition; from 18:30 panel discussion at Politforum in the Käfigturm.

Film evening «Reproductive Justice» concluding the exhibition at Kino Rex Bern.