The video Still shows two very fat, naked and white female dolls made of fabric in a changing room together with a small black boy made of plasticine. Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg, Sammlung Goetz Munich

Sammlung Goetz in Haus der Kunst

Broken. Slapstick, Comedy and Black Humor

June 27, 2014 – April 26, 2015

Humor is when you laugh anyway. But how far can you go if the feelings of others are hurt? This exhibition in Haus der Kunst with works from Sammlung Goetz focuses on this conflict.

With Paweł Althamer, Francis Alÿs, John Bock, Olaf Breuning, Nathalie Djurberg, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Rodney Graham, Mike Kelley, Jochen Kuhn, Mirko Martin, Aernout Mik, Tony Oursler, Paul Pfeiffer, Robin Rhode and Julian Rosefeldt.

'Schadenfreude' is profoundly human. Sigmund Freud himself described the release that humor could cause. In the film and entertainment industry, the popular genres of slapstick, comedy and black humor have developed because they enable us to laugh over the mishaps of others.

The seventh exhibition in Haus der Kunst will present 15 works of media art from Sammlung Goetz that explore this border and at times consciously exceed it. The title of the exhibition, Broken refers to the video installation of the same name by Tony Oursler. It shows a male doll whose head is stuck between two chairs. Although the body is only indicated by plaid fabric, the situation seems very real because the facial expressions projected onto the doll's face are those of a living person.

Can we still laugh about this or not? Many of the works in this exhibition raise just this question. Often, all laughter sticks in the viewer's throat and turns into dismay or compassion upon seeing other people be humiliated or harmed.

The international KunstFilmBiennale KINO DER KUNST took place in Munich from April 22 to 26, 2015. Therefore, the exhibition Broken. Slapstick, Comedy and Black Humor with media art from Sammlung Goetz was extended. Unfortunately, the eponymous work Broken by Tony Oursler was no longer available, because of its inclusion in another exhibition project. Presented in its place was Jochen Kuhn's film, Sunday 3 (2012).

Curated by Ingvild Goetz und Cornelia Gockel

Cyrill Lachauer. The Sunset Route

June 20 – September 27, 2026 | Kunstpalais Erlangen

feat. Mike Brodie, Mouse Green, Rhyw, Mia Justice Smith, Moritz Stumm

In the exhibition The Sunset Route, on view at the Kunstpalais Erlangen and created in collaboration with the Sammlung Goetz, Cyrill Lachauer presents works from 2020 to 2025, a period during which he traveled on freight trains through the USA, Mexico, and Bosnia. In the spirit of poetic ethnography, he created photographs and films that are now being shown together for the first time. They all explore questions of freedom, self-determination, and resistance, as well as colonization, exclusion, and exploitation.

Laurie Simmons. Dollhouse Photographs

June 25 – August 30, 2026 | Deutsches Theatermuseum

The American artist Laurie Simmons is known for her photographs featuring tiny dolls representing stereotypical female roles in domestic interiors. The exhibition, a collaboration between Sammlung Goetz, Deutsches Theatermuseum and Filmfest Munich, presents a selection of works by Simmons that cast a critical gaze at gender stereotypes in the American middle class.

Sterling Ruby

July 16 – October 24, 2026 | Sammlung Goetz /Schaufenster

Los Angeles-based American artist Sterling Ruby is known for his cross-genre work, which ranges from ceramics and bronzes, collages and textiles, to enormous, spray-painted paintings. In his works, Ruby weaves together a variety of different autobiographical, art-historical, and sociological sources. Through deconstruction and reconstruction, he probes the idea of a non-hierarchical and borderless universe. The exhibition at the Sammlung Goetz /Schaufenster provides insight into his multi-layered artistic practice.

Jeff Wall

November 17, 2026 – February 20, 2027 | Sammlung Goetz /Schaufenster

Canadian artist Jeff Wall is one of the most influential photographers of our time. In his elaborately staged pictorial compositions, he combines the narrative of cinema with painting. Wall became known for his large-format lightbox images, which are formally more reminiscent of the world of advertising than that of fine art. With this technique, he revolutionized the medium of photography, elevating it to the height of painting and sculpture. The exhibition at the Sammlung Goetz /Schaufenster presents a selection of his iconic lightbox images from the 1990s.