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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Nan Goldin: This Will Not End Well

Nan Goldin, Untitled (Ohne Titel), 1982.

Nov 23, 2024 – Apr 6, 2025
Potsdamer Straße 50, 10785 Berlin, Germany

“I like people being in a dark room, looking at a projected image, and having it be a tactile experience,” said Nan Goldin in 2022. She was referring to her slideshows—compilations of photographs accompanied by music, voiceovers, and archival footage—a format she began experimenting with in the 1980s. Among these, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency stands out as the most well-known, chronicling intimate moments of life in Berlin, London, New York, and Provincetown from the 1970s onward. Initially, Goldin projected these videos onto the walls of nightclubs, in public spaces, and at film festivals, confronting audiences with stories shrouded in taboo: family history, drug addiction and withdrawal, domestic violence, sex work, queer and trans rights, and the AIDS crisis. Now, in the first exhibition devoted entirely to her film work, Goldin shows six slideshows. Each will be displayed in its own room, specially designed for the occasion by the architect Hala Wardé. —Jeanne Malle