End of the 20th Century : the Best Is yet to Come

The idea of the future, which has survived - or perhaps even assimilated - history's disappointments and aberrations, constitutes the starting point of the Hamburger Bahnhof's forthcoming special exhibition. Focusing its gaze on the beguiling horizon of the "not yet", the exhibition takes both its cue and its title from Joseph Beuys' sculpture "The End of the 20th Century" (first version). Back in the early 1980s, when the much longed for and fearfully awaited end of the 20th century was still a thing of the future, Beuys assembled the sculpture's 21 recumbent basalt steles, pallet jack and crowbar into one of the most powerful prognostic pieces of our times. The exhibition is set to unfold within a series of ten sections which address, expand or contest Beuys' formulation of the future. 0Exhibition: Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany (14.9.2013-30.3.2014).