After Seoul, Beijing, Melbourne, London and Taipei, this travelling exhibition stops at the Kunsthalle in Munich, continuing to explore the notion of civilization through the images of more than 100 international photographers.
Since 2018, the exhibition "Civilization: The Way We Live Now" has been touring the world, from city to city, launched by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul and the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography in Minneapolis. For seven years, it has examined the various aspects of human existence, from great achievements to collective failures.
In 2025, as part of its 40th anniversary , the Kunsthalle Munich explores the question of "our current way of life," complementing the theme with new works that address the Covid-19 pandemic and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). Next year, the exhibition will travel to the Design Museum Zurich.
Reflecting on our similarities
“Never before have so many people lived on Earth, never before has our impact on the planet been so great, never before have we been so closely interconnected as we are today – and our society is evolving at an ever-accelerating pace ,” explain the curators of the German institution. They are therefore focusing on the cultures of all continents and our ways “of producing and consuming, working and playing, traveling and living, thinking and creating, collaborating and confronting one another.”
From renowned artists (Candida Höfer, Edward Burtynsky, Thomas Struth) to emerging photographers (Pablo López Luz, Sheng-Wen Lo, Julia Chamberlain), the exhibition highlights what connects and unites us. And this is especially true at a time when people and opinions seem to be growing increasingly distant and divergent.
The quintet of curators references Edward Steichen's 1955 exhibition, "The Family of Man." At the time, it offered a survey of humanity across some thirty themes, demonstrating the universality of the human experience. Seventy years later, the history of civilization continues to prove that we remain indeed interconnected and interdependent.
The world today in eight sections
The first room, titled "Hive," documents the complex coexistence of peoples in megacities, exploring the interplay of architecture, landscapes, and the lifestyles of their inhabitants. The following section, "Alone Together," highlights the concepts of community and individual identities. "Control" addresses authority and power. "Flow" explores the movement of people, goods, finances, and sophisticated infrastructure. "Persuasion" examines the strategies used to create needs and manipulate social behavior.
For its part, "Rupture" focuses on the causes and consequences of conflicts and migrations. "Escape" shows how the mechanisms of the tourism and leisure industry, as well as mass gatherings, allow people to escape their daily lives and flee to better worlds. As for "Next," this final section offers a look at the future in light of the ethics of new technologies and the adaptability to ecological challenges.
More than 230 photographs are thus exhibited on the walls of the Munich institution, presenting a multifaceted and cross-cutting portrait of the contemporary world whose aim is "to inform, to entertain and to inspire".
“Civilization: The Way We Live Now”
Art gallery of the Hypo Cultural Foundation
Theatinerstrasse 8, Munich (Germany)
From April 11 to August 24, 2025
