On the Value of Time: New Presentation of the Collection of Contemporary Art

Museum Ludwig, Cologne
August 10, 2023 - August 31, 2025

The Mu­se­um Lud­wig col­lec­tion in­cludes the most im­por­tant artists of the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry and con­tem­po­rary art. The works of mod­er­nism and art from 1945 to 1970 are ar­ranged chrono­log­i­cal­ly from the up­per­most to the mid­dle floor. The con­tem­po­rary art in the stair­well and on the base­ment lev­el forms the back­bone and foun­da­tion of the mu­se­um, look­ing in­to the past and the fu­ture. At the same time, the col­lec­tion pre­sents the di­verse me­dia and con­cep­tu­al man­i­fes­ta­tions of con­tem­po­rary art, which do not fol­low a firm­ly estab­lished canon and can­not be cat­e­go­rized in­to styles.

Ev­ery two years the Mu­se­um Lud­wig pre­sents a new se­lec­tion of con­tem­po­rary art from its col­lec­tion. This edi­tion, run­n­ing from Au­gust 10, 2023 till Au­gust 31, 2025, will fo­cus on dif­fer­ent con­cepts of time and ways in which artists han­dle the top­ic in their work. Many artists draw at­ten­tion to the fact that art is ex­pe­ri­enced in the pre­sent, while al­so ques­tion­ing me­m­o­ry, re­mem­brance, and his­to­ri­og­ra­phy. The pre­sen­ta­tion is framed by “val­ue of time” as a con­cep­t—a so­cial­ly de­ter­mined val­ue on which ab­s­tract, quan­ti­fi­able time is based.