Modern Love (or Love in the Age of Cold Intimacies)

3 October 2020 to 18 April 2021

Museum für Neue Kunst

Modern Love explores the state of love and intimate relationships in the age of the Internet, social media, neo-liberal capitalism, and globalisation. It probes the societal patterns and challenges as well as possibilities that the Internet and social media present to our intimate relationships.

Digital technology and consumerism have significantly transformed love and social relationships. The experience of the virtual has increasingly dissolved the boundary between private and public. This influences how we communicate and interact with one another, especially with those closest to us.

On the one hand, the Internet and social media have facilitated the expression of non-heteronormative identities, forms of desire, and alternative ways of being. On the other, they have played a problematic role in cultivating pathologies such as narcissism, obsessive self-performativity, digital dependency within relationships, and the commodification of emotion.

The conflation of reality and fantasy has created complex psychological and relational entanglements, which are explored – among other things – in this exhibition.

In cooperation with Tallinna Kunstihoone (Estonia) and IMPAKT, Utrecht (Netherlands).

You can find the audio guide to the exhibition online at: https://digigiid.ee/en/exhibitions/modern-love

Participating artists: Gabriel Abrantes, Hannah Toticki Anbert, Melanie Bonajo, Laura Cemin, Benjamin Crotty, Kyriaki Goni, David Haines, Juliet Jacques, Mahmoud Khaled, Lauren Lee McCarthy, Maria Mavropoulou, Kyle McDonald, Marge Monko, Peter Puklus, Marijke De Roover, Margaret Salmon

Marge Monko, I Don't Know You So I Can't Love You, 2018. Courtesy of the artist

Modern Love from home – Videos online

During the closing of the museum we will give small insights into the exhibition "Modern Love (or Love in the Age of Cold Intimacies)" online. Some artists are making their works available for a temporary online presentation.

© Städtische Museen Freiburg. Foto: Bernhard Strauss
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg
Ausstellungsansicht „Modern Love (or Love in the Age of Cold Intimacies)“
Hannah Toticki Anbert, Framing Presence, 2020
Hintergrund: Marijke de Roover, Niche Content for Frustrated Queers, 2019-2020 
Foto: Bernhard Strauss
© Städtische Museen Freiburg. Foto: Bernhard Strauss
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg
Ausstellungsansicht „Modern Love (or Love in the Age of Cold Intimacies)“
Laura Cemin, The Warmth, 2017/2020
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg
Foto: Bernhard Strauss
© Städtische Museen Freiburg. Foto: Bernhard Strauss
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg
Ausstellungsansicht „Modern Love (or Love in the Age of Cold Intimacies)“
Foto: Bernhard Strauss
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg, Marijke De Roover, Niche Content for Frustrated Queers, You never drink alone when you have ghosts from your past, 2020. Courtesy of the artist & Arcade, London
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg, Marijke De Roover, Niche Content for Frustrated Queers, You never drink alone when you have ghosts from your past, 2020. Courtesy of the artist & Arcade, London
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg, David Haines, Still Life with Flyer (Habibi), 2017. Courtesy of the artist & Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam, Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg, David Haines, Still Life with Flyer (Habibi), 2017. Courtesy of the artist & Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam, Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg, Hannah Toticki Anbert, Touch Screen Protection Rings. Silver Version. 2019, Photo:Toticki Studio
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg, Hannah Toticki Anbert, Touch Screen Protection Rings. Silver Version. 2019, Photo:Toticki Studio
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg, Laura Cemin, persistence of memory, 2020. Courtesy of the artist
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg, Laura Cemin, persistence of memory, 2020. Courtesy of the artist
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg, Marge Monko, I Don't Know You So I Can't Love You, 2018. Courtesy of the artist
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg, Marge Monko, I Don't Know You So I Can't Love You, 2018. Courtesy of the artist
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg, Maria Mavropoulou, Family Portraits, Anniversary Dinner, 2018. Courtesy of the artist
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg, Maria Mavropoulou, Family Portraits, Anniversary Dinner, 2018. Courtesy of the artist
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg, Juliet Jacques, You Will Be Free, 2017. Courtesy of the artist
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg, Juliet Jacques, You Will Be Free, 2017. Courtesy of the artist
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg, Gabriel Abrantes & Benjamin Crotty, Liberdade, 2011. Courtesy of the artists
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg, Gabriel Abrantes & Benjamin Crotty, Liberdade, 2011. Courtesy of the artists
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg, Lauren Lee McCarthy & Kyle McDonald, pplkpr, 2015. Courtesy of the artists
Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg, Lauren Lee McCarthy & Kyle McDonald, pplkpr, 2015. Courtesy of the artists