Two tardigrades in a lunar landscape, behind them stands an abstract, twisted shape – similar to a deformed rock or a twisted sculpture made of soft material. It looks as if it is made of glass or transparent plastic.

AkademieGalerie München

Merlin Stadler. Stilled Life

September 5 – September 21, 2025

Merlin Stadler, a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, was awarded with the Media Art Award 2025 by the Kunststiftung Ingvild und Stephan Goetz for the realization of his 3D animated short film Stilled Life.

Stadler’s film project was inspired by an actual event; in 2019, the Beresheet moonlander crashed on its approach to the moon. In addition to human DNA, several thousand frozen tardigrades—microscopically small, extremely resistant organisms—were also on board. Stadler uses this event as the starting point for his speculative story about the possible colonization of the moon. The 3D-animated short film Stilled Life, in which he creates a future scenario on the moon, can now be seen in his exhibition at the AkademieGalerie.

The Media Art Award is a cooperation between the Sammlung Goetz, the Academy of Fine Arts Munich and the Kunststiftung Ingvild and Stephan Goetz. It is awarded annually to support emerging artists in the field of media art, enabling them to create new works and strengthen their public recognition.

Cindy Sherman

March 17 – June 27, 2026 | Sammlung Goetz /Schaufenster

The staging of female role models in photographic self-portraits is the predominant theme in the work of American artist Cindy Sherman. To this end, Sherman references stereotypes of collective visual memory in a media-driven world. The exhibition at the Sammlung Goetz /Schaufenster highlights works from Sherman’s fashion series, created between 1983 and 1994. Thanks to her passion for costumes and masquerade, the world of fashion has been an expansive playing field for her artistic exploration.

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.

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.