MAN UP is a digital exhibition by Hessel (Haden) de Groot about queer men who have experienced violence within close relationships.

While public conversations often focus on violence directed at the LGBTQIA+ community from the outside, MAN UP turns toward what can happen from within: violence in intimate relationships, families, friendships, and other close circles where safety, care, and trust are expected.

The exhibition explores how queer men move through a cycle of shock, shame, fear, isolation, breaking point, survival, and healing. Every story is different, but across the project, similar patterns return. Violence does not only leave physical traces. It can shape how someone understands trust, intimacy, masculinity, safety, and their own place within relationships.

Through personal stories, photography, drawings, and research gathered across six continents, MAN UP creates space for experiences that are still too often hidden.

MAN UP is an invitation to listen, recognise, and provoke conversation.