Horizontal

There is nothing we associate more with being sick than lying in bed. This special exhibition Horizontal: Politics and Poetics from the Sickbed explores how perception and our connection to the world change when the bed becomes the center of our lives. Historical objects and archival materials, artworks, activist positions, and stories of lived experience enter into a conversation that stretches from the nineteenth century to the present. This allows a richly varied picture to emerge that shows the sickbed not only as a site of medical treatment but also a space in which fundamental issues of our time emerge: participation, care, solidarity, and the conditions of rest in an exhausted society. 

With numerous loans and artistic contributions by Angela Alves, Annabelle, Annett Gröschner, Aron Neubert, Bed Zine, Black Power Naps (Navild Acosta and Dr. Shadow F. Sosa), Gritli Faulhaber, Katharina Sabernig, Katharina Sophia Scharff, Käthe Kollwitz, Liz Orton, Wilhelm Müller, Nightstand Collective (Emma Jones), Paula Kempker, Poppy Nash, Rosy Lilienfeld, Benôit Piéron, and Philipp Veit.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a festival held on September 12 and 13, 2026, in the museum’s lecture hall ruins.

The exhibition was made possible by support from the Berlin Capital Cultural Fund, the Cultural Foundation of the German States, and the British Council.