For Children: Art Stories since 1968

“The ultimate test of your own understanding is to be able to explain a concept to children.” – DIS

With KOO JEONG A, Agus Nur Amal PMTOH, Ei Arakawa-Nash, Tarek Atoui, Yto Barrada, Antoine Catala, Neha Choksi, DIS, Ólafur Elíasson, Harun Farocki, Emily Floyd, Jan Peter Hammer, KEKS, Eva Koťátková, Basim Magdy, Ana Mendieta, Meredith Monk, Bruce Nauman, Ernesto Neto, Rivane Neuenschwander, Lygia Pape, Rachel Rose, Afrah Shafiq, and Tromarama.

The voice of Bruce Nauman welcomes you, repeating “For children.” The marble floors of Haus der Kunst become a collective painting conceived by Ei Arakawa-Nash. Walking through Antoine Catala’s artificial forest, a glowing, womb-like tent by Ernesto Neto appears; a stack of oversized building blocks by Yto Barrada; a towering rainbow under which one can crawl by Emily Floyd; and a table under which Eva Koťátková invites to hide, offering shelter from the world outside. Black and white footage takes us to a past of trailblazing intergenerational art projects with and for children in cities such as Munich, Rio de Janeiro, Iowa City, and Venice. Harun Farocki’s films, in turn, reveal the phenomena of our world through the eyes of children.

These are just a few of the artworks in the exhibition For Children: Art Stories since 1968, which is spread across multiple galleries at Haus der Kunst. The exhibition flows between indoors and outdoors, offering moments of reflection, action, play, learning, and contemplation.

For Children focuses on artworks created since 1968, specifically conceived for children and young audiences. This period marked a fundamental shift in artmaking, as artists began bringing children and their needs into museums and urban spaces through their work—emphasizing active, collective engagement over passive reception. In Munich, the collective KEKS (Kunst, Erziehung, Kybernetik, Soziologie) left the classroom to use the urban environment as a site of lived experience. Following up on this approach, the works in the exhibition address universal themes—humanity, society, politics, economics, the environment, technology, and the future—topics we first encounter as children and carry with us throughout life.

Created by over twenty artists from around the world, these works illuminate a lesser-known chapter of art history: since the late 1960s, artists have increasingly regarded children and young people not only as capable audiences, but also as active protagonists and collaborators of their works.

For Children offers a variety of perspectives on fundamental questions such as: What does it mean to be a child today? What role does childhood play in contemporary society? Can art offer fundamental new forms of learning? Is childhood a closed chapter—or a state of being in the world?

The For Children. Study Days, scheduled on December 5-6, 2025, will offer a rich programme of panel discussions, performances and workshops to delve deeper into the themes of the exhibition. The programme has been conceived together with researchers and curators Lars Bang Larsen, Kabelo Malatsie and Kefiloe Siwisa.

Curated by Andrea Lissoni, Emma Enderby, Lydia Korndörfer, Xue Tan with Lydia Antoniou, Laila Wu, as well as Sabine Brantl (Archive), Pia Linden and Camille Latreille (Learning and Engagement).

The accompanying catalogue will be published by Distanz in autumn 2025.