Everything at Once: Postmodernity, 1967–1992

The year 1967 marked the beginning of our present: Modernism, which had presumed that everything could be sorted out through equal housing, furniture and rights for all, was abandoned, and from its ruins a bizarre, eccentric world was born. Architects declared the amusement park the new ideal city; designers shook off the yoke of good taste, and the conflict between the two dominant political systems gave way to the struggle for self-realisation. New media synchronised the globe, and images became the arena in which contests for style and recognition were waged.

Showcasing spectacular examples of design, architecture, cinema, pop, philosophy, art and literature, the exhibition chronicles the dawn of the information society, the unleashing of the financial markets, the great age of subcultures, disco, punk and techno-pop, shoulder pads and Memphis furniture. With restagings of historic works by General Idea, Jean-Paul Goude and Jenny Holzer, including her 1982 Times Square projection, the show brings an era back to life that, out of depression and political polarization, developed an unseen explosion of critical thinking, emancipatory politics and cultural wealth. It also chronicles the sudden surge in the construction of museums, the new temples of art and culture, to which we owe the largest exhibit, the Bundeskunsthalle itself. When the Bundeskunsthalle opened in 1992, the Cold War was over, and Francis Fukuyama published his famous book, in which he proclaimed ‘the end of history’ as such. Thirty years later, it is clear that history did not come to an end, and Postmodernism is once again a matter of considerable debate.

Holding up a mirror to the present, the exhibition homes in on our current conflicts—from right-wing populism to identity politics. It allows us to ask, from the distance of a generation, what time we are actually living in. Is Postmodernity really over—or are we in the middle of it?

With: Pedro Almodóvar, Archizoom, Azzedine Alaïa, Ant Farm, J. G. Ballard, Dieter Bankert, Donald Barthelme, Roland Barthes, Martine Bedin, Heinz Bienefeld, Ricardo Bofill, Neville Brody, Trisha Brown, Judith Butler, David Byrne, Cesare Casati, Citroën, Lucinda Childs, Nigel Coates, Combahee River Collective, Comme des Garçons, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Michele De Lucchi, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Devo, Peter Eisenman, Bret Easton Ellis, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Achim Felz, Paul Feyerabend, Michel Foucault, Francis Fukuyama, Jean Paul Gaultier, Frank Gehry, General Idea, Jean-Paul Goude, Michael Graves, Félix Guattari, Donna Haraway, David Harvey, Hipgnosis, David Hockney, Hans Hollein, Jenny Holzer, Haruomi Hosono, Haus-Rucker-Co, Arata Isozaki, Fredric Jameson, Charles Jencks, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Philip Johnson, Grace Jones, Bodys Isek Kingelez, Rem Koolhaas, Leonard Koren, Kraftwerk, Kengo Kuma, Karl Lagerfeld, Louise Lawler, David Lynch, Michael Mann, Martin Margiela, Javier Mariscal, Gordon Matta-Clark, Marshall McLuhan, Richard Meier, Alessandro Mendini, Memphis, Issey Miyake, Claude Montana, Charles Moore, Franco Moschino, Makoto Nakamura, Brian O’Doherty, Nam June Paik, Van Dyke Parks, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Gustav Peichl, D. A. Pennebaker, Gaetano Pesce, Renzo Piano, Walter Pichler, Emanuele Ponzio, Paolo Portoghesi, Sally Potter, Paco Rabanne, Yvonne Rainer, Godfrey Reggio, Kevin Roche, Werner Rösler, Aldo Rossi, Ed Ruscha, Edward Said, Ridley Scott, Denise Scott Brown, Cindy Sherman, Peter Shire, Borek Šípek, SITE, Thomas Gordon Smith, Ettore Sottsass, Gayatri Spivak, Linder Sterling, James Stirling, Studio 65, Sturtevant, Shin Takamatsu, Matteo Thun-Hohenstein, Stanley Tigerman, Masanori Umeda, Oswald Mathias Ungers, Roger Vadim, Robert Venturi, Gianni Versace, Madelon Vriesendorp, Andy Warhol, Vivienne Westwood, James Wines, Robert Wyatt, Kansai Yamamoto, Harumi Yamaguchi, Yellow Magic

Catalogue
Everything at Once: In a thrilling book design by Studio Yukiko, featuring over 400 images, this new 288-page standard publication re-examines the multi-faceted legacies of postmodernism in music, film, design, fashion, architecture, philosophy, online culture, politics, and the economy. The publication includes conversations with Neville Brody, AA Bronson, Kevin Driscoll, New Models, Moritz Schularick, Denise Scott Brown, Joseph Vogl, and James Wines, along with essays by Diedrich Diederichsen, Nikita Dhawan, Oliver Elser, Gertrud Koch, Eva Kraus, Sylvia Lavin, Kolja Reichert, and Léa Catherine Szacka.
Published by Hirmer, Munich.
Museum edition: 39 EUR
Order your copy: order@buchhandlung-walther-koenig.de

Symposium
“Post-Postmodernism: A Map for the Present”
Friday, November 10, 2–8pm, and Saturday, November 11, 12–7pm
International artists and architecture experts look at the challenges of the present through the lens of postmodernism: Is the present still postmodern? Is it postmodern again? What does Postmodernism teach us about dealing with new media and populism? And why do the radical experiments conducted between 1967 and 1992 inspire a new generation? Creatives aged around 40 meet their idols of the 1970s and 80s and re-explore the beginnings of our present.

With Neville Brody, Nigel Coates, Simon Denny, Nikita Dhawan, Diedrich Diederichsen, Oliver Elser, Eva Kraus, Sylvia Lavin, Reinhold Martin, Markus Peichl, Kolja Reichert, James Wines and many more.
An event by STUDIO BONN, the think tank of the Bundeskunsthalle

Information and tickets at studiobonn.io.

Bundeskunsthalle
Director: Eva Kraus
Managing-Direktor: Oliver Hölken
Curators: Eva Kraus, Kolja Reichert
Exhibition Manager: Susanne Annen
Press officer: Sven Bergmann, kommunikation@bundeskunsthalle.de

Coming soon
Federal Prize for Art Students
26th National Competition of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research
October 27, 2023 to January 7, 2024

Immanuel Kant and the Enlightenment
November 24, 2023 to March 17, 2024

Anna Oppermann: A Retrospective
December 13, 2023 to April 1, 2024

For the most up to date schedule, please go to: bundeskunsthalle.de/en/events/calendar.