Say Yes: Gegen die Wand

Schedule
18:30-19:30 Exhibition open and Get Married With Your Bestie!
19:30-19:50 Artist talk with Yamuna Forzani
19:50-21:50 Film

Marry Your Bestie! 

Dress up in wedding clothes and share your vows — serious or funny — with your chosen partner. Declare eternal love for yourself, your best friend, or any platonic beloved. prepare for a wedding ceremony filled with joy, glamour, and fabulous blessings. 

A rack full of wedding outfits in all sizes, including veils, dresses, hats and blazers, is ready to allow guests to quickly change for the ceremony. This interactive installation offers a playful look at weddings and the cultural expectations surrounding love and success. A photographer will be there to capture every unforgettable moment.

About the exhibition Say Yes - International trends in wedding fashion

Discover the vibrance and meaning of wedding fashion at the SAY YES exhibition at Wereldmuseum Rotterdam. From January 31 to October 26, 2025, embark on an inspiring journey through wedding traditions and modern designs from various cultures. Be amazed by iconic creations, innovative trends, and the deeper stories behind this extraordinary fashion.

Wedding attire is much more than just a dress or suit; it is an expression of identity, tradition, and connection. With SAY YES, Wereldmuseum Rotterdam invites you into the rich world of international wedding fashion. From January 31 to October 26, 2025, explore how wedding styles from different cultures are being rediscovered and how traditional elements are innovatively reinterpreted in contemporary design.

About the talk
Yamuna Forzani is a multidisciplinary artist and queer activist whose practice revolves around a deep desire to build a queer utopia—one that centers and celebrates her community, making them both the inspiration and an integral part of her creative work. Before the film starts, Yamuna Forzani will host a talk where she'll dive into the theme of love and relationships from a queer perspective.

About the film
Bright lights flash on in a punk club in Hamburg, where Cahit, a middle-aged, self-destructive alcoholic of Turkish descent, downs his last beer of the night, numbing himself against his emotions. Ever since his wife died, he has lost all reason to live and attempts to end his life by crashing his car into a wall. But instead of dying, he wakes up in a psychiatric hospital where he meets Sibel, a young woman desperate to break free from the oppressive control of her conservative Muslim family.

There is no love at first sight, but Sibel sees an opportunity in Cahit’s Turkish background and impulsively asks him to marry her, knowing that a Turkish husband would grant her the freedom she craves from her strict family. What begins as a marriage of convenience, where Sibel embraces her newfound independence and Cahit continues his downward spiral, gradually evolves into something deeper. But when two self-destructive souls collide, the result can only be a turbulent and painful love story.

Gegen die Wand is a brutal, raw and at times even darkly funny film that explores themes of love, cultural identity and marriage. Here, marriage carries multiple meanings. It becomes a lens through which cultural expectations, gender roles and the clash between personal freedom and societal pressures are examined, particularly within the Turkish-German immigrant community. Ultimately, Gegen die Wand presents marriage as a paradox, both a cage and a form of liberation.