Josef Albers Museum Quadrat Bottrop
Longing for Trust / On Trust in Art, November 8, 2026 to March 7, 2027
Trust functions as an invisible and connection in personal relationships as well as in society as a whole. It is an elemental force wherever knowledge and uncertainty meet, in private relationships as well as within the structures of a globalised society. The exhibition “Longing for Trust. On Trust in Art” at the Josef Albers Museum explores this fragile phenomenon through the perspective of visual art.
"Longing for Trust" brings together works by international artists dating from the late 1950s to the present who address, call for, or critically question trust. Thus, the exhibition invites visitors to reflect on trust, its prerequisites, implications, and manifestations, whether in the intimate dialogue between artwork and viewer or in an engagement with systems of political power and control. The selected works encourage visitors to explore the idea of trust as something both ubiquitous and highly specific, and to consider its different forms and meanings. In doing so, the exhibition approaches trust not as a static state but as a dynamic process whose necessity and vulnerability have repeatedly played a central role in contemporary art.
Featuring works by:
Marina Abramović & Ulay, Alice Creischer, Thomas Demand, Gauri Gill, Hans Haacke, Martin Kippenberger, Koizumi Meiro, Lee Mingwei, Cristiana Cott Negoescu, Yoko Ono, Trevor Paglen, Paul Ramírez Jonas, Julia Scher, Shimabuku, Andreas Siekmann, Rajesh Vangad.
Photo below/top right: Exhibition view of “Longing for Trust / Über das Vertrauen in der Kunst” / Photo: Philipp Ottendörfer © Josef Albers MuseumQuadrat Bottrop
