TIME MACHINE. NEW SELECTION FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE LUDWIG MUSEUM

The exhibition was created in extraordinary circumstances, during a brief pause in the pandemic, so it could not ignore the lessons of the past period. From the museum's collection of around 800 pieces, a selection of works has been chosen to explore different aspects of personal, artistic and historical time, from the curator's personal point of view.

The exhibition is introduced by works related to time, the passage of time and notable dates, followed by family photographs and diaries that give an insight into individual lives and family histories, and into the private history of Central and Eastern Europe. Through the works as documents, we will learn about recent history, everyday life and events, including the change of regime in Eastern Europe and its links with the historical avant-garde. We can reflect on the fate of monuments and the relationship between art, society and politics. Social utopias and their failures, revolutions and wars, literary utopias and inspirations, slogans and concepts.

The not-too-distant dystopian future and our futuristic present are the subject of an installation on medicine and the human body and psyche, as well as a film on modern warfare, war trauma and virtual reality. Particular attention was paid to the moment of death as the end point and closure of human destiny and life. The works also draw attention to the fragility and unrepeatability of human existence, to the absurdity of war and everyday life.

We present the real and imaginary technical means used to capture the moment, the reality, as perfectly as possible in photography. We will also examine the relationship between still and moving image, and (press) photography and painting, while highlighting the critical aspects of photorealism.

With Picasso, we recall how the greatest innovators of the twentieth century reflect on their great predecessors and the history of painting, weaving an invisible web between eras, works and artists, but we also look at how Western art is seen by the 'outsider'.

Finally, we will also look at time 'locked up' in the work, listing those works that take longer than usual to assemble into a monumental work, from countless parts, variations and works, so that they are rarely shown.