Few places are surrounded by as many myths and stories as the forest. In Germany in particular, the forest is a highly charged area of meaning. At the latest since the Romantic period, it has been transfigured into a German national myth. At the same time, the forest is a central biological and ecological system whose vulnerability has been burned into people's consciousness since the great forest dieback in the 1980s. Today the forest is threatened by deforestation for highway construction or hard coal mining and occupied by numerous activists for protection.
This existential connection between people is also reflected in art - whether mysterious and dark or peaceful and empowering. The exhibition bridges the gap between representations from around 1900 and expansive contemporary installations, and makes it possible to experience the forest as a place that is both myth and motif, projection surface and paradise.