Nan Goldin

Exhibition organized by Moderna Museet in collaboration with Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milano, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin and Réunion des musées nationaux – Grand Palais, Paris

Nan Goldin (Washington D.C., 1953; lives and works in New York) is one of the most high-pro­file artists of our time. Her work’s exploration of the human experience is legendary and has profoundly influenced subsequent generations. Her first work, The Ballad of Sexual Dependen­cy, documents life in Provincetown, the Lower East Side, Berlin and London beginning in the 1970s and 80s and up to the present day. Goldin photographed the world of her inner circle of creative, bohemian friends with raw tenderness. Her photographs give us snapshots of intimacy and coupling, the quotidian and wild parties, and the struggle between autonomy and dependen­cy. Of the generation whose experiences were defined by the freedom of life before AIDS and an alternative world outside normative society, Goldin’s work also stands as a document of the times. Around 1980 Goldin began presenting her slideshows in various clubs and public ven­ues in New York, as well as at underground cin­emas and film festivals in Europe. She updated and reedited her slideshow every time and used multiple projectors, which she operated against the background of an eclectic soundtrack. Gol­din’s ability to revisit these slideshows has since formed the core of her artistic practice. Over the past 40 years Goldin has produced a doz­en different slideshows—from portraits of her friends to accounts of traumatic family events. She has added new elements to her works over time, such as moving images, voices, and archi­val material.

“This Will Not End Well” is the first exhibition to present a comprehensive over­view of Nan Goldin’s work as a filmmaker. The show at Pirelli HangarBicocca will include the largest selection ever of her slide shows, including The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1981-2022), Goldin’s magnum opus; produced as an hom­age to her trans friends whom she photographed between 1972–2010; Sisters, Saints and Sibyls (2004–22), a testament to the trauma of families and suicide; Fire Leap (2010–22), a foray into the world of children; Sirens (2019–20), a trip into drug ecstasy; and Memory Lost (2019–21), a claustrophobic journey through drug withdrawal, among other works. The exhibition will be installed in unique buildings designed by architect Hala Wardé, each in response to the specific piece.