Globalization over the past three decades and the end of the Cold War have led to profound changes in peoples' lives, in political and economic structures, as well as in view of the form of interpersonal relationships and individual lifestyle. Migration shapes the history of humanity.
The painful experience of uprooting is expressed not only as sorrow but also as creative power. The world is experienced in a state of change, everything is in motion. The semblance of stability is transitory. Finally it is man's own finite nature which is reflected in the motif of migration.
The exhibition unites the utopian global ideas of the sixties and seventies and compares them with works from the nineties to the present, those works applying themselves to questions of cultural identity and the resulting conflict potential.
"When you are travelling, you realise that you are only a short term guest, that time is limited." (Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel)
List of artists participating in the exhibition:
Alighiero Boetti (1940–1994, lived and worked in Rome and Afghanistan) – George Brecht (b. 1926 in New York, lives and works in Cologne) – Joseph Beuys (1921–1986, lived and worked in Düsseldorf) – Pier Paolo Calzolari (b. 1943 in Bologna, lives and works in Fermignano) – Constant (b. 1920 in Amsterdam, lives and works in Amsterdam) – Robert Filliou (1926–1987, lived and worked in France and Germany) – Olafur Gislason (b. 1962 in Reykjavik, Iceland, lives and works in Hamburg) – Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957–1996, lived and worked in New York) – Mona Hatoum (b. 1952 in Beirut, lives and works in London) – Nicolas Humbert / Werner Penzel (b. 1958 / b. 1950, live and work in Munich) – Mario Merz (b. 1925 in Mailand, lives and works in Turin and Milan) – Marcel Odenbach (b. 1953 in Cologne, lives and works in Cologne and Kumasi, Ghana) – Kim Sooja (b. 1957 in Daegu, Korea, lives and works in New York)
