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The night has a magical quality. For most, it is the time when people come to rest, when they retire to their homes to sleep. But there are also the restless ones, the sleepwalkers, the night owls and criminals. Many of these are looking for something or for themselves.
Works by Christoph Brech, Olaf Breuning, Janet Cardiff / George Bures Miller, Thomas Demand, Stan Douglas, Ed van der Elsken, Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler, Jochen Kuhn, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Hans Op de Beeck, Clement Page, Paul Pfeiffer and Andro Wekua.
In 14 stations, the exhibition takes visitors on a journey through the night, that time between dreams and reality. On display are films, videos, installations and photographs from the Sammlung Goetz that reflect the different facets of a nightly foray. Viewers immerse themselves in the dream worlds of the artists and into a setting akin to a spy movie. They witness nocturnal escapades, a contract killing and a fateful encounter between two people. Many of the works in the exhibition are based on motifs as diverse as the Romantic period, insights from psychoanalysis, film noir movies or the Bible. The night has always had a special significance in cultural history and science. Through their artistic approach, technical implementation or content-related interpretation, the works convey a novel, often surprising perspective of the well-known theme. Similar to an episodic film, the journey through the rooms spans an arc from moonrise to sunrise, because the darkest hour of the night also leads to the dawn of a new day.
Curated by Cornelia Gockel
