The journey begins in the mind. Where else? In 2024, Museum Folkwang is putting people and their imagination centre stage

Essen, 14.11.2023 – Museum Folkwang's programme for 2024 is visually powerful and diverse, across epochs and interdisciplinary: author Felicitas Hoppe takes us on a long journey in a poster exhibition, while Andreas Slominski's works take us to football stadiums before the start of the European Football Championship. In autumn, the Photographic Collection presents a multifaceted show on the subject of hair in photography. The collection will be presented in new themed rooms with free admission.

In spring, wanderlust will be the theme of a major travel poster exhibition at Museum Folkwang. Faraway Countries, Faraway Times (15 March - 7 July 2024) brings together around 300 posters, complemented by numerous photochromes, postcards and a replica of an imperial panorama. The renowned author Felicitas Hoppe is writing a literary accompaniment for the extensive exhibition that sheds new light on these "journeys in the mind". To mark the 50th anniversary of Deutsches Plakat Museum, a poster colloquium with international participation will take place on 15 March 2024.

In the second half of the year, the photographic gaze will be the focus of the exhibition programme. Grow It, Show It! (13 September 2024 - 12 January 2025) shows how the different ways of wearing and styling, showing and concealing hair can point to ethnic, cultural and religious origins and thus also to questions of identity. The exhibition brings together historical and contemporary works by photographers such as Diane Arbus, Anouk Kruithof, J.D. Okhai Ojeikere, August Sander and Cindy Sherman alongside album covers, YouTube tutorials and TikTok posts.

The Photographic Collection is also presenting three further exhibitions in 2024: Wolf D. Harhammer and Photography Masters (9 February - 26 May 2024) and Troeller/Deffarge (15 November 2024 - 23 February 2025). The work of Stuttgart photographer Wolf D. Harhammer transports viewers into the world of the fairground. In the mid-1970s, he photographed the lives of artists, acrobats, animal keepers, clowns and others who had sought their place in the circus microcosm at regional festivals. The Photography Masters exhibition shows selected final works by graduates of the Photography Studies & Practice master's programme at the Folkwang University of the Arts.

The work of the two journalists Marie-Claude Deffarge and Gordian Troeller will be rediscovered in a first comprehensive retrospective in November. Their reports from over 70 countries around the world were published in the 1960s, primarily in Stern magazine, and their later films were broadcast on television.

On the occasion of the new acquisition of the painting Montaru 2d by Willi Baumeister, Museum Folkwang is initiating a new exhibition format: Collection Stories. The first presentation of the painting acquired in 2023 will be flanked by around 30 paintings and prints by the artist Willi Baumeister at Museum Folkwang. Signs of Time (23 February - 16 June 2024) tells the eventful history of Baumeister's works in the Museum Folkwang collection.

The popular 6 ½ weeks exhibition format will continue all year round in 2024 and will present young international artists in four presentations. In the summer months, the museum will be set in motion as part of the cooperation with the Ruhrtriennale. The museum's collection presentation will also remain in flux and will continue in 2024 with new themed rooms under the title NEW WORLDS. It brings together art from different centuries and different media in the spirit of the Folkwang idea.