Beyond the Pain

The exhibition “Beyond the Pain” is dedicated to the universal theme of pain and, above all, how we get over it. The show explores the central questions: What comes after pain? Can pain be a meaningful, even enjoyable experience that enables us to transform boundary experiences into a positive attitude? On the other hand, there also exists a pain that is almost impossible to endure and presumably too great to ever get over, for instance torture or traumata. Some people nevertheless succeed in living a positive life despite this ever-present limitation.

Like art, pain is an individual experience that has a physical or psychological effect. The aim, therefore, is above all to present artistic positions that prompt an immediate emotional response in viewers, speaking to their capacity for empathy. Be it by means of a visual or acoustic stimulus or the narrative dealt with in the artwork. This leads to ambivalences between aesthetic and physical or emotional feelings.

Installation images by Henning Krause 2020