Exhibitions
Upcoming
Passants parmi les pierres
curated by Thomas Demand
29/5/2026—20/9/2026
Opening: May 28, 7:00 p.m.
The exhibition Passants parmi les pierres, curated by the internationally renowned artist Thomas Demand, revolves around images that do not simply depict, but simultaneously produce the reality to which they refer: perception as construction, memory as montage, the image as a form of history. In this movement, the work itself becomes a space of thought—not as a representation, but as an arrangement of visibility.
The exhibition brings together 27 positions from photography, film, and sculpture. All of them move between reportage and reconstruction, between the observed moment and the staged image, between a historical event and its representation. The works selected for the exhibition share aspects of image composition and spatial arrangement, and in many cases also the seemingly incidental, almost unnoticed presence of the camera. Figures often appear in front of architecture, frequently turned away from the camera. They suggest a relationship to the surrounding spaces which, upon closer inspection, proves to be more a supposition than a confirmed connection.
Captions written by the author Clemens J. Setz form an independent textual layer within the space. They do not explain the exhibited works, but accompany them with openly subjective commentary—as association, memory, observation, or short narrative. In doing so, they invite viewers to develop their own interpretations rather than asserting an allegedly objective set of facts.
The exhibition is conceived as a spatial movement through the fjk3. Transitions, narrow passages, and sightlines create a mode of strolling in which seeing and thinking merge: passers-by among the stones.
With works by:
Tina Barney • Sibylle Bergemann • Martin Boyce • Mohamed Bourouissa • David Claerbout • Tacita Dean • Cai Dongdong • Haris Epaminonda • Omer Fast • Peter Fischli David Weiss • Jens Franke • Ljubiša Georgievski • Luigi Ghirri • Esther Hovers • Jürgen Jürges • Boris Mikhailov • Yoshinori Mizutani • Lucia Moholy • Daido Moriyama • Akihiko Okamura • Daniel Postaer • Denise Scott Brown • Clemens J. Setz • Thomas Struth • Unknown photographer • Anna Viebrock • Jeff Wall • Carrie Mae Weems
Thomas Demand (*1964, Munich) is a German conceptual artist and photographer. He became known for his method of reconstructing real locations based on media images as life-sized models made of paper and cardboard, photographing them, and subsequently destroying them. The photograph remains as the sole artwork.
Demand studied in Munich and Düsseldorf. His uninhabited, artificially staged scenes address themes of memory, perception, and the media construction of reality.
Since the mid-1990s, he has exhibited internationally and is represented in major collections worldwide. His solo exhibitions include the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2005), the Fondazione Prada as part of the Venice Biennale (2007), the Hamburger Kunsthalle (2008), and the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2009/10). Most recently, he has had solo exhibitions at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (2025), the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2024), Esther Schipper, Paris (2023), and the Jeu de Paume, Paris (2023).
Thomas Demand has been Professor at the HFBK Hamburg since 2011 in the sculpture department with a focus on photography. He lives and works in Berlin and Los Angeles.
The exhibition Passants parmi les pierres, curated by the internationally renowned artist Thomas Demand, revolves around images that do not simply depict, but simultaneously produce the reality to which they refer: perception as construction, memory as montage, the image as a form of history. In this movement, the work itself becomes a space of thought—not as a representation, but as an arrangement of visibility.
The exhibition brings together 27 positions from photography, film, and sculpture. All of them move between reportage and reconstruction, between the observed moment and the staged image, between a historical event and its representation. The works selected for the exhibition share aspects of image composition and spatial arrangement, and in many cases also the seemingly incidental, almost unnoticed presence of the camera. Figures often appear in front of architecture, frequently turned away from the camera. They suggest a relationship to the surrounding spaces which, upon closer inspection, proves to be more a supposition than a confirmed connection.
Captions written by the author Clemens J. Setz form an independent textual layer within the space. They do not explain the exhibited works, but accompany them with openly subjective commentary—as association, memory, observation, or short narrative. In doing so, they invite viewers to develop their own interpretations rather than asserting an allegedly objective set of facts.
The exhibition is conceived as a spatial movement through the fjk3. Transitions, narrow passages, and sightlines create a mode of strolling in which seeing and thinking merge: passers-by among the stones.
With works by:
Tina Barney • Sibylle Bergemann • Martin Boyce • Mohamed Bourouissa • David Claerbout • Tacita Dean • Cai Dongdong • Haris Epaminonda • Omer Fast • Peter Fischli David Weiss • Jens Franke • Ljubiša Georgievski • Luigi Ghirri • Esther Hovers • Jürgen Jürges • Boris Mikhailov • Yoshinori Mizutani • Lucia Moholy • Daido Moriyama • Akihiko Okamura • Daniel Postaer • Denise Scott Brown • Clemens J. Setz • Thomas Struth • Unknown photographer • Anna Viebrock • Jeff Wall • Carrie Mae Weems
Thomas Demand (*1964, Munich) is a German conceptual artist and photographer. He became known for his method of reconstructing real locations based on media images as life-sized models made of paper and cardboard, photographing them, and subsequently destroying them. The photograph remains as the sole artwork.
Demand studied in Munich and Düsseldorf. His uninhabited, artificially staged scenes address themes of memory, perception, and the media construction of reality.
Since the mid-1990s, he has exhibited internationally and is represented in major collections worldwide. His solo exhibitions include the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2005), the Fondazione Prada as part of the Venice Biennale (2007), the Hamburger Kunsthalle (2008), and the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2009/10). Most recently, he has had solo exhibitions at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (2025), the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2024), Esther Schipper, Paris (2023), and the Jeu de Paume, Paris (2023).
Thomas Demand has been Professor at the HFBK Hamburg since 2011 in the sculpture department with a focus on photography. He lives and works in Berlin and Los Angeles.