July 4, 2026–February 21, 2027
ZKM | Karlsruhe presents Silver Egg: The Eros of Media Art, its major thematic exhibition of 2026. Featuring new productions alongside key existing artworks, the group show draws attention to the compelling interrelations between contemporary media art and the connective energies that animate life. Revisiting the mythological and philosophical concept of desire, the exhibition proposes an erotic mode of engaging with the world.
Eros—the winged god of love—has embodied the mysterious force of desire and the pleasures of being alive since Greek antiquity. According to one archaic creation myth, Eros emerged from chaos at the dawn of the world. Amid cosmic winds, he hatched from the silver world egg as an invincible generative force. As a mediator between heaven and earth, between the arts and human experience, he has become a multi-resonant figure of interpretation. The significance of the erotic for the production and reception of art has been argued throughout the history of thought, all the way from Plato to Karl Jaspers, Georges Bataille, Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag, Julia Kristeva, Audre Lorde, and Jean-Luc Nancy. Inquiry and understanding on the one hand and enthusiasm and pleasure on the other hand form the poles of a tension that give rise to new ideas and configurations. The aesthetic setting of the show makes these dynamics palpable.
In showcasing fifty international artists from diverse generations and cultural backgrounds, the exhibition considers Eros not merely as a deity of physical attraction but as a driving force of curiosity, transformation, and shared existence. Through a broad spectrum of artistic media, these experimental and poetic artworks shed light on the longings and shortcomings of our time, probing the dynamic relationships between nature and technology, bodies and environments, individuals and communities.
Taking the “silver egg” as its conceptual framework, the exhibition revisits the ancient idea that knowledge begins in the senses, exploring this proposition through hybrid media art. Visitors are invited to reach beyond habitual modes of media consumption and enter into a more sensuous engagement. By activating the senses of sight, hearing, smell, touch, and movement, the artistic interplay of materials, media, motion, light, sound, and air creates a space for direct aesthetic encounter: Photography, film, ceramics, textile art, AI-based practices, sound and video installations, hybrid sculptures, as well as kinetic, sensory, and robotic artworks enter into dialogue with literature, painting, and music. Together, these works generate formal and thematic correspondences shaped by the logic of attraction and resonance.
Sensory experience is not an end in itself. The immediacy of perception offers profound ways of approaching some of the defining questions we face today: how we inhabit our environments, how we relate to technologically mediated realities, and why we remain drawn to what is absent, unknown, or yet to unfold.
The exhibition activates Eros as a mediator between aesthetic experience and our understanding of the world. In doing so, it foregrounds the erotic as a vital principle for reimagining contemporary forms of relational life.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a bilingual German-English publication and a program of workshops and educational outreach activities.
Participating artists
Marco Barotti, Honey Biba Beckerlee, Stefano della Bella, Bériou, Elda Cerrato, Stine Deja, Edith Dekyndt, Frederik Duerinck, Margret Eicher, Anselm Feuerbach, Thomas Feuerstein, Christoph Girardet / Matthias Müller, Johan Grimonprez, Andreas Gursky, Salvador Dalí / Philippe Halsman, Derek Jarman, Jonas Jørgensen / Cody Lukas, Yunchul Kim, Angelina Kozhevnikova (Animaspace), Gašper Kunšič, Ryoichi Kurokawa, Karen Lancel / Herman Maat, Eunhee Lee, Shuang Li, Bernd Lintermann, Richard Mosse, Alicja Patanowska, Irving Penn, Ciara Phillips, Charmaine Poh, Helen Pynor / Gail Priest, Gerhard Richter / Corinna Belz, Pipilotti Rist, robotlab, Günter Scharein, Nika Schmitt, Tristan Schulze, Jill Scott, Jessica Segall, Ief Spincemaille, Ajla R. Steinvåg / René Aquarius, Stelarc, Sissel Marie Tonn, Timm Ulrichs, Milja Viita, ::vtol::, Yeongju Yang, Weidi Zhang / Rodger Luo
Curated by
Anett Holzheid
Press contact
Lilli Roser, presse@zkm.de / T +49 (0) 721 8100 1220
