The exhibition the artist is naked at Kunstpalais takes a look at uncovered works from the Erlangen Municipal Collection revolving around body, nudity and artists' self-portraits from the 1960s to the present day. Complemented by selected loans, exciting dialogues about contemporary history, freedoms fought for and ongoing needs are created.

In the 1960s, artists began to use their bodies as a medium, based on the Happening and Fluxus movements. In performances, photography and video art, naked bodies and deliberate provocation were used to seek liberation from social and political constraints and create expressive statements in the context of the civil and human rights movement, women's movement and sexual revolution.

Nowadays, artists still like to use their own bodies as art objects. Sometimes with a great deal of humor, sometimes shocking or even seductive, but always completely uncovered, they provide glimpses of more than just naked facts. After all, the body and nudity are still hot topics and photos of the female breast appear on social media just as scandalous and in need of censorship as they did 60 years ago. The collection exhibition the artist is naked at Kunstpalais tells stories of emancipation, liberation, self-discovery and acceptance.

With works by Soufiane Ababri, Eileen Almarales Noy, Kensise Anders, Cassils, John Coplans, Zuzanna Czebatul, Anna Ehrenstein, Valie Export, Zohar Fraiman, Rosie Gibbens, Georg Herold, Claudia Holzinger, Rebecca Horn, Jürgen Klauke, Gerhard Richter, Gustav Seitz, Lars Teichmann, Juergen Teller, Michael Ullrich, Timm Ulrichs, Lilly Urbat, Milena Wojhan and Sonja Yakovleva.

Image: Michael Ullrich, I have all the time to make you mine, Photography, Municipal Collection Erlangen