Maurizio Cattelan opens major solo exhibition at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie

Italian sculptor Maurizio Cattelan has launched his first major solo exhibition in Germany, titled ‘Night’, at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. The exhibition, which runs until March 2027, features over a dozen works, including new productions and controversial pieces.

Key installations include a miniature version of the Brandenburg Gate titled ‘Purgatory’, a sculpture of a kneeling figure resembling Adolf Hitler titled ‘Him’, and ‘Dust’, a fire extinguisher containing human ashes. Other works include a marble eagle, a horse suspended from the ceiling, and approximately 4,000 taxidermied pigeons installed under the museum roof.

Museum director Klaus Biesenbach described the show as a serious exhibition that evokes humility and creates a unique dialogue with the historic building. The exhibition explores themes of power, religion, death, humor, and memory, which the museum notes are particularly resonant given Berlin’s complex history. Cattelan, the recipient of the Preis der Nationalgalerie, envisioned the exhibition space as having a ritualistic, church-like quality.