DREAM 4: Lust beyond the patriarchy

When I filmed a portrait piece with Ulli Lust in 2013, she had already released her international comic bestseller »Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life« – a laconic, autobiographical coming-of-age story. In it, she tells of the trip to Italy she took with a friend as a 17-year-old punk in the 1980s. »We were looking for adventure,« Lust recalls. »Unfortunately, we also had to pay the price for it – in the form of a rape.«

Back then, she was working on »How I Tried to Be a Good Person« (2017), a reflection on a love triangle marked by sexual obsession, gender conflict, and intercultural tensions. »I started drawing erotic motifs when I was 22, and I was incredibly ashamed. I threw the drawings in the trash and then burned them. So that no one would see them. Back then, I couldn't have dreamed that I'd one day spread all my dirty stuff out in public,« Lust recounts. The brilliant feminist comic became another bestseller.

With »The Woman as Human« (2025), Ulli Lust presents a meticulously researched non-fiction comic that reinterprets the early history of women and debunks common patriarchal myths. Based on archaeological and anthropological research, she shows that early communities were often organized more egalitarianly than later accounts suggest. The comic combines this with a strong visual language that places female figures and symbols at the center. As the first comic ever, the work was awarded the German Non-Fiction Book Prize. With it, Lust not only designs a new image of the past but also a powerful vision of a post-patriarchal future.

The exhibition »Pleasure Beyond Patriarchy« will showcase hand-signed prints, originals, and unique pieces from Ulli Lust's works at Lovelab Dreamspace until January 17, 2026. The neighboring Montag bookstore offers books signed by the artist.

Tim Ra