Martin Eder’s hallmarks might be gloomy landscapes, naked buts and furry kittens, or else, motifs that challenge what we take as given. In his latest show at Eigen+Art, one enters, unforeseen, a sort of isle of the blessed − a paradise that shines out of his paintings in fifty pastel shades. There, all faces glow. And healing, happiness and idyll beckon. Yet unlike the beauty idealization unleashed by social media, Eder does not erase any pores, birthmarks, wrinkles, dents, or bruises. He instead provides his figures with a dampness of sweat, which, in the words of art critic Anne Waak, “can only come from the dew of paradisiacal meadows”.

This year KM Kunstverein München is celebrating its 200th Anniversary. Revisiting and making accessible its forward-thinking, iconic, and at times, very controversial history has been Maurin Dietrich’s primary focus from her very start as a director. Central to the jubilee is the exhibition “THE ARCHIVE AS…”, for which two centuries of archival documents have been painstakingly reviewed, questioned and (re)contextualized. Did you know that George Condo, Jeff Koons or Adrian Piper had their first solo shows in Germany at KM? Or that the same exhibition halls that once hosted the infamous “Entartete Kunst” exhibition by the Nazi regime, turned during the 70s into a place to meet and organize political protests i.e. in favor of women’s emancipation and abortion rights?

Imagine the Fondation Beyeler filled with hundreds of rose petals sewn together to form a delicate shroud (A Flor de Piel, 2011), worn shoes sealed with cowhide behind its exhibition halls (Atrabiliarios, 1996). Picture its rooms inhabited by white cotton shirts pierced by steel rods (Untitled, 1989) and table halves held together by silk and human hair only (Unland, 1995). Doris Salcedo’s largest exhibition in continental Europe thus far addresses the effects and collective experience of violent conflicts worldwide.