Large cities and metropolitan centers are hotbeds of innovation, but also full of contradictions. The clash between traditions and futuristic modernity make life an ongoing challenge for their residents. The urban microcosm has become second nature for around 55 percent of the world’s population. No wonder, then, that the ‘urbanized’ body plays a central role in contemporary art. The exhibition Bodies—Cities draws on the collections of the Generali Foundation and the Museum der Moderne Salzburg to probe this complex. The collections in our care are also front and center in the exhibition The Tip of the Iceberg. The image is a familiar one: only 10 to 15 percent of an iceberg rise above the surface of the ocean, with a much larger mass of ice lurking below. Something similar happens with museum collections—their diversity and sheer size are not usually visible to the public. We want to change that: an ensemble of twelve presentations designed by our curators will unearth forgotten, unexpected, and never-before-seen treasures for an exhibition that will be as polyphonic as the collection it represents.

Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz, partners in art and life, are unusually fond of kitschy souvenirs, which they repurpose as scenes of “hilarious nightmares.” The nostalgic and sentimental dream world of snow globes serves them as the stage on which they enact absurd and bizarre tableaus and calamities. The situation typically seems hopeless but not altogether serious. A bleak hibernal life underwater—Martin and Muñoz’s is truly a world through the looking-glass. Snow globe collectors and aficionados will not want to miss A Mind of Winter any more than contemporary art lovers.

The Museum der Moderne Salzburg's team is looking forward to your visit!