Our childhood home is a place of imagination, safety, and
playfulness, but sometimes also of trauma, violence, and fear. It
determines who we are, shapes who we become, and influences what we
repress. The impulse to create art often emerges when growing up. Many
artists draw on early, individual experiences in their works and
subsequently renew, expand, or change our view of the world.



The title Dream Baby Dream
evocatively reflects this approach by quoting the eponymous song by the
influential electro duo Suicide. The American dream that is conjured up
in the lyrics is transformed through the song’s gloomy sounds into both
a nightmare and a trance-like ray of hope, allowing rebellion and
longing, fear and fantasy to merge with each other.



This
catalogue is devoted to artists whose oeuvre has been fuelled by this
source of imagination. Their works contain many references to the time
of adolescence, presenting this period of life as an artistic
inspiration, but also as a metaphor for physical, psychological, and
social conflicts. Joined together, they give rise to an atmosphere in
which the dark sides of childhood and youth metamorphose into new forms.



Artists:
Jean-Marie Appriou, Morton Bartlett, Richard Billingham, Ellen Cantor,
Dominick Di Meo, Valie Export, Mike Kelley, Karen Kilimnik, Susan Te
Kahurangi King, Veit Laurent Kurz, Paul McCarthy, Berenice Olmedo,
Charlemagne Palestine, Wong Ping, Barbara Rossi, Laurie Simmons,
Jean-Luc Verna, Raphaela Vogel, Sue Williams.



Text in English and German.