BERNHARD RÜDIGER: FAILED AGAIN (SEVENTH TRUMPET)

BERNHARD RÜDIGER: FAILED AGAIN (SEVENTH TRUMPET) |
Large Overview Exhibition |

Municipal Gallery Piran, 22 May—23 August 2026 |
Opening: Friday, 22 May 2026 at 7:00 p.m.

Curators: Mara Ambrožič Verderber, Matic Bukovac,
Coordination: Gabrijela Kukovič.

Press Release

At Piran Coastal Galleries, we are preparing a large overview exhibition by internationally renowned European artist Bernhard Rüdiger, entitled Failed Again (Seventh Trumpet), which will open on May 22, 2026, at 7:00 p.m. at the Piran Civic Gallery.

The exhibition at the Piran Civic Gallery will present the development of Rüdiger’s artistic career over more than four decades through numerous works, including sculptures, installations, drawings, paintings, sound projections, films, and more. The exhibition will offer a selection of key works from his extensive creative output by an internationally renowned artist whose expressive language was shaped in dialogue with the social, political, and historical upheavals of the period 1985–2025, which also represents the most intense phase of his artistic activity.

The exhibition is included in the 2026 programme of the Piran Coastal Galleries among the core selection of major exhibitions of national importance. In this way, our central Regional museum of contemporary art continues its mission of presenting internationally acclaimed artists to the Littoral and Slovenian public, in accordance with their founding act.

The exhibition will unfold the development of Rüdiger’s artistic journey during this period through numerous works: sculptures, installations, drawings and paintings, sound reproductions and film, as well as many other works that Obalne galerije Piran are gathering with great care in order to present them for the first time in Slovenia to both domestic and international audiences.

Bernhard Rüdiger’s outstanding works of art are not merely visual objects, but interventions that involve sound, vibrations and the bodily experience of the visitor. The meaning and aim of the project are to move the viewer from a passive to an active role, since art is perceived with the whole body, not only with the eyes. His sculptures and spatial installations raise the question: how do we perceive form and art in a time when historical forces (wars, violence, neoliberal capitalism, natural disasters) shape our reality, even when they are distant? The large overview exhibition will show that art is not isolated from these events, but internalizes and comments on them. The artist’s interest lies in transcending the boundaries of aesthetics and opening reflection on global power relations, invisible borders, violence and the economy as the driving force of contemporary conflicts. Likewise, the artist’s reflection on the relationship and interaction among art, society, and contemporary history, as well as on the functionality of the artwork and its historical responsibility, will connect us to a broader understanding of contemporary art and global artistic currents, and thus also to our shared, universal human consciousness.

The project is financially supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and by the generous support of the Municipality of Piran.

The exhibition is also developed thanks to the collaboration with the University of Lyon (UDL): École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA) and the Terra Museum in Kikinda, Serbia.

Public programme

On Saturday, 23 May 2026, at 11:00 a.m. a trilingual guided tour of the exhibition will be held in the company of the artist Bernhard Rüdiger.

Throughout its duration, the exhibition will also be accompanied by a rich programme of guided tours with the participation of the curatorial staff of Piran Coastal Galleries, as well as pedagogical and andragogical workshops. Participants of all ages will be able to experience art as an experience and as a reflection on social time, while also understanding the importance of the viewer’s active engagement. The activities, adapted to the age of the groups, include drawing, modelling, and experimenting with sound and movement in space. The accompanying programme will be published in May.

Biographical note on the artist

Bernhard Rüdiger, born in 1964 in Rome, graduated from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts under Luciano Fabro. In Milan, he worked at La Casa degli artisti, founded by Fabro together with Jole De Sanna and Hidetoshi Nagasawa (1978), and actively participated in discussions on the new Italian art scene at the end of the 1980s. Together with other artists, including Liliana Moro, Adriano Tovato and Mario Airò, he took part in experimental collective projects before founding the journal tiracorrendo and Spazio di Via Lazzaro Palazzi (1989–1994). In 2022, the Museo del Novecento in Milan created an archive dedicated to this work through the Progetto di Valorizzazione dell’Archivio dello Spazio di Via Lazzaro Palazzi. A book devoted to this project was published by Electa, Milan (2022).

Since 1994 he has lived in Paris and has directed the research unit Art Contemporain et Temps de l’Histoire (Eng. Contemporary Art and the Age of History), which he founded in 2004 at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. At the invitation of collector Franco Nucci and Alfredo Pirri, Rüdiger co-founded Volume! Un lavoro in via San Francesco di Sales in Rome (1997/1998), together with Jannis Kounellis, philosopher Pietro Montani and architect Nicolo di Battisto.

Numerous monographic exhibitions have been devoted to his work: MAMBO Bologna (1999), Christian Stein, Turin and Milan, Traversée Zeitgenössische Kunst, Munich, Scogniamiglio Naples, TAG, Udine, Studio Sergio Casoli, Milan, Matteo Remolino Turin, Galleria Alice, Rome, Studio Sauro Bocchi, Rome, Centre d’art Les Tanneries Amilly (2021), FRAC Occitanie and MO.CO.ESBA in Montpellier (2015), Château des Adhémar centre d’art contemporain de Montélimar (2006), Centre d’art La Galerie de Noisy-le-Sec (1999), CCC OD in Tours (1996), as well as at the galleries Michel Rein in Tours and Paris, Bernard Bouche in Paris, Krings-Ernst-Galerie, Cologne, Galerie Traversée Zeitgenössische Kunst, Munich.

He has also been invited to participate in numerous group exhibitions: Luigi Pecci Center for Contemporary Art in Prato (1990, 1998, 2018), Milan Triennale (Ennesima, 2015), Palazzo Albizzini Foundation Burri Collection, Città di Castello (2015), Museion Bolzano (2014), Venice Biennale (1993, 2001, 2011), Rome Quadriennale (1996, 2008), Pavilion of Contemporary Art Milan (1989, 1998), Palais des Beaux-Arts Lille (2006), Musée d’Arte Contemporain de Rochechouart (2003), Magasin Grenoble (1992), Petach Tikva Museum of Art, Israel (2013), Ostrale Dresden (2013), PS1 New York (1999), contemporary art museums in Caracas, Bogotá and Buenos Aires (1992), Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna (1991), and many others.

In 2022, an extensive monograph on his work, »Forty-nine Exhibitions«, was published by Mousse Publishing.