»Strangers we are ourselves«

The title triggers curiosity: Strangers we are ourselves: Portraits from Paula Modersohn-Becker to Zanele Muholi. With this exhibition, starting on August 21, the Von-der-Heydt-Museum in Wuppertal explores how societal and social role concepts are inscribed in and affect human (self-)representations.

The association presents works from the collection of the Von-der-Heydt-Museum and deals with the era since the late 19th century by artists of classical modernism, such as Paula Modersohn-Becker, to luminaries like Francis Bacon and contemporary positions like Zanele Muholi. The title of the exhibition refers to Julia Kristeva's 1900 book of the same name, in which she explores the tension between self-perception and the perception of others. She posits that human beings are as much strangers to themselves as they are to others.

The exhibits in Strangers we are ourselves hold up »those ambivalences and margins that exist between self-perception and perception of the other.« The exhibition thus aims to reveal how the pictorial staging of the people portrayed directs or influences perception. The event runs until January 29, 2023.