Neue Nationalgalerie’s retrospective is the first exhibition in Germany to present a comprehensive overview of Goldin’s work. The exhibition is installed in six unique buildings designed by Hala Wardé, an architect who frequently works with Goldin. Each building is designed in response to the specific piece. Together they constitute a village. “I have always wanted to be a filmmaker. My slideshows are films made up of stills,” says Nan Goldin.

The exhibition is comprised of: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1981–2022), her magnum opus; The Other Side (1992– 2021), a historical portrait produced as an homage to her trans friends whom she photographed 1972–2010; Sisters, Saints and Sibyls (2004–2022), a testament to the trauma of families and suicide; Fire Leap (2010–2022), a foray into the world of children; Memory Lost (2019–2021), a claustrophobic journey through drug withdrawal; and Sirens (2019–2020), a trip into drug ecstasy.

General Information

The special exhibition Nan Goldin: This Will Not End Well can only be visited with a time slot-ticket. Holders of a house ticket can book a free time-slot.
Extended opening hours: From 13 December 2024 to 6 April 2025, the opening hours of the exhibition will be extended by 2 hours on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 am to 8 pm.

Nan Goldin (born in Washington D.C. in 1953) is one of the most high-profile artists of our time. Her work's exploration of the human experience is legendary and has profoundly influenced subsequent generations. Her first work, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, documents life in Provincetown, the Lower East Side of New York City, Berlin and London beginning in the 1970s and 80s and up to the present day. Goldin photographed the world of her inner circle of creative, bohemian friends with raw tenderness. Her photographs give us snapshots of intimacy and coupling, the quotidian and wild parties, and the struggle between autonomy and dependency.

The Core of Goldin’s Artistic Practice

Of the generation whose experiences were defined by the freedom of life before AIDS and an alternative world outside normative society, Goldin’s work also stands as a document of the times. Around 1980 Goldin began presenting her slideshows in various clubs and public venues in New York, as well as at underground cinemas and film festivals in Europe. She updated and reedited her slideshow every time and used multiple projectors, which she operated against the background of an eclectic soundtrack. Goldin’s ability to revisit these slideshows has since formed the core of her artistic practice. Over the past 40 years Goldin has produced a dozen different slideshows – from portraits of her friends to accounts of traumatic family events. Since then, she has added elements into her works such as moving images, voices and archival materials.

This Will Not End Well started as a comprehensive international exhibition tour at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm (29 October 2022–26 February 2023), travelled to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (31 August 2023–28 January 2024) and opens now at the Neue National-galerie in Berlin (23 November 2024–6 April 2025); It continues afterwards to the Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan (9 October 2025–15 February 2026) and Réunion des musées nationaux – Grand Palais, Paris (March–June 2026).

The exhibition project is curated by Fredrik Liew, Chief Curator, Moderna Museet.