FEAR Art in the Age of Anxiety
Overview
The exhibition brings together artists whose practices respond to a climate of fear and anxiety, fuelled by internal and external conflicts. Anxiety can be defined as an internal alarm signalling a possible, invisible threat. The word derives from the Latin angere (‘to squeeze’ or ‘to choke’), which describes a tightness in the throat or chest. The artists translate this invisible feeling into tangible form through material explorations and expressive gestures while also playing with staging and iconography.
Georg Baselitz
Joseph Beuys
Oksana Chatchko
Mandy El-Sayegh
VALIE EXPORT
Harun Farocki
Ron Mueck
Arnulf Rainer
Daniel Richter
Niki de Saint Phalle
Minh-Lan Tran
Günther Uecker
Banks Violette
The exhibition brings together artists whose practices respond to a climate of fear and anxiety, fuelled by internal and external conflicts. Anxiety can be defined as an internal alarm signalling a possible, invisible threat. The word derives from the Latin angere (‘to squeeze’ or ‘to choke’), which describes a tightness in the throat or chest. The artists translate this invisible feeling into tangible form through material explorations and expressive gestures while also playing with staging and iconography.
As the menace of global conflict drives economies towards militarisation, VALIE EXPORT transforms organ pipes into missiles in her installation Oh Lord, Don’t Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb on Me (2023), exposing how a material used as a spiritual conduit can be weaponised for destruction. Harun Farocki’s video work, Inextinguishable Fire (1969), reminds us of how, during the Vietnam War, the napalm bomb was produced in factories where intentionally fragmented labour meant that workers were detached from the lethal consequences of their work.
Ambient fear is amplified by certain media to generate viral engagement, triggering humans’ ‘dramatic instincts’, a term theorised by Hans Rosling. Mandy El-Sayegh and Günther Uecker treat the canvas as a vulnerable surface that absorbs and reflects the emotional impact of real-world atrocities and their media coverage. By painting a crowd as if seen through military infrared imaging, Daniel Richter colours the invisible threat of surveillance (Duisen, 2004).
Several of the works engage with theatricality, immersing the viewer in a cathartic scenography. Ron Mueck’s canine installation Havoc (2025) taps into a visceral, ancestral fear that resonates with contemporary ones. Georg Baselitz’s sculpture Zero Ende (2013), surrounded by Arnulf Rainer’s monochrome Overpaintings (1956–1971), darkens the atmosphere and conveys a sense of doom. Banks Violette, inspired by death metal and post-punk, presents a mirrored installation, Mirror Wall (2007), that shatters under pneumatic pressure, reflecting a broken reality.
Yet, fear can be met with courage. VALIE EXPORT, Niki de Saint Phalle, Joseph Beuys, Minh-Lan Tran and Oksana Chatchko subvert and reappropriate weapons as symbols and tools of resistance and repair, as seen in their works, respectively: Aktionshose: Genitalpanik (1969/1994–2026), Tir (1961), Handgranate (1970), Apologies (2026) and Untitled (c. 2016). These practices remind us that art is not just a pleasant, aesthetic experience. Art can also be envisioned as a means of defence. As Joseph Beuys stated: ‘[art] has to be developed as a weapon.’
