Opening Franz Wanner. Suspended Presences

When:
Mon, March 23, 2026, 7pm – 10pm

Free admission

When:
Mon, March 23, 2026, 7pm–10pm

Free admission

On Monday, May 23 from 7pm, the opening of the exhibition "Franz Wanner. Suspended Presences" will take place. Lenbachhaus Munich cordially invites you and your friends!

A pair of Plexiglas safety goggles stands at the beginning of the exhibition of Franz Wanner (b. 1975, Bad Tölz). The glasses were unearthed during excavations on the grounds of the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp. It belonged to a person who was used for forced labor in the arms industry and wore it to protect themselves. To date, no information has been recovered about the imprisoned person who was forced to work in the arms industry and who used the glasses to preserve their eyesight. Their desire to protect themselves is evident to this day.

Franz Wanner is interested in the gap between reality and self-representation of the Federal Republic of Germany. To this end, he researches its history and closely examines how it is embellished, sanitized, and utilized for present-day purposes. The exploitation of labor is the central theme of his exhibition at the Lenbachhaus: under Nazism, forced labor was widespread in all areas of society. The recruitment agreements with Italy, Turkey, Greece, and Yugoslavia starting in the mid-1950s were founded in part on the extensive structures of Nazi forced labor. As a result, people who were recruited from 1955 onwards and moved to Germany were partly housed in former Nazi barracks, which were referred to as "guest worker camps"; the legal basis for the agreements was based on a Nazi decree from 1938.

Through his questioning of state institutions such as the secret service and the police, his research into the interconnection between university research and the arms industry, and Germany's active role in the European Union's defensive migration policy, Wanner asks how and where the Nazism of then continues in today's neoliberal imperative.

With speeches from
Florian Roth, Member of the Munich City Council representing the Lord Mayor
Matthias Mühling, Director of Lenbachhaus
Stephanie Weber, Curator of the exhibition