This photograph shows an empty baroque concert hall respectively opera hall from the stage. On the stage are music stands, an electric piano and other musical equipment. Candida Höfer, Sammlung Goetz Munich

Fundación Banco Santander, Madrid

All the world’s a stage

February 20 – June 13, 2015

The world as a stage is the subject of a large-scale exhibition of the Sammlung Goetz presented in the Fundación Banco Santander. Approximately 90 works, from paintings to sculptures, photographs and films to large-scale installations by 25 artists, will be on view.

With Matthew Barney, Candice Breitz, Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, Stan Douglas, Elmgreen & Dragset, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Nan Goldin, Rodney Graham, Asta Gröting, Lothar Hempel, Candida Höfer, Mike Kelley, Michael Kunze, Zilla Leutenegger, Jonathan Meese, Hans Op de Beeck, Ulrike Ottinger, Paul Pfeiffer, Markus Schinwald, Laurie Simmons, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Hiroshi Sugito, Catherine Sullivan, Rosemarie Trockel, Jeff Wall, Matthias Weischer and Johannes Wohnseifer.

Since 2011 the Fundación Banco Santander has presented the most prestigious collections from around the world in its rooms in Boadilla (Madrid). For 2015, the foundation has invited the Sammlung Goetz to curate an exhibition from its holdings; this is the foundation’s first presentation of a German institution. Instead of simply presenting a selection of its highlights, the curators decided to look at the collection from a different perspective.

Many of the works collector Ingvild Goetz has brought together focus on issues of representation, theatricality and staging. The roughly 3,000 square meters of exhibition space provides a welcome opportunity to show how artists from various generations explore – in the diversity of virtually all media forms – this topic and how the visual and performing arts in dialogue inspire each other. The title of the exhibition All the world's a stage is a quote from William Shakespeare's comedy As You Like It, which deals with, in addition to deceptions and disappointments in love, ultimately, the search for one’s own identity.

The exhibition includes the large photo light boxes of Jeff Wall, bronze sculptures by Jonathan Meese and stage-like paintings by Hiroshi Sugito. Some of the highlights include the installations of Elmgreen & Dragset, Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller and Mike Kelley, which transport the viewer into another world.

Concept: Ingvild Goetz and Karsten Löckeman

Curated by Karsten Löckemann