Julia Stoschek Collection Reopens in Düsseldorf With ‘Selfish in Bed’

The Julia Stoschek Collection will mark its 20th anniversary with “Selfish in Bed,” a group exhibition of 52 works by 43 artists opening April 10, 2027, in Düsseldorf. The show also doubles as the reopening of the foundation’s headquarters, which closed for renovations in April 2025.

The title comes from Sarah Lucas’s 2000 self-portrait Selfish in Bed II, in which the British artist stands with her hands on her hips in a black T-shirt reading “SELFISH IN BED.” That photograph sets the tone for a show about how we construct identity, express sexuality, and present ourselves to the world.

Krist Gruijthuijsen curated the exhibition. He currently directs EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art in Finland and previously ran Berlin’s KW Institute for Contemporary Art.

Why the bed?

The show takes the bed as its conceptual starting point. It’s a contradictory place now — private and vulnerable, yet also networked, where we spend hours scrolling through the images and opinions that shape how we see ourselves. The works on view span the late 1960s to the present, and several have never been exhibited by the foundation before.

The lineup includes Tracey Emin, Bill Viola, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Bruce Nauman, alongside named highlights:

• Emin’s Why I Never Became a Dancer (1995), Simon Fujiwara’s Joanne (2016/2018), and Hannah Wilke’s Through the Large Glass (1976), all exploring women’s relationships with their bodies, sexuality, and public image
• Monica Bonvicini’s Destroy She Said (1998), which challenges traditional domestic roles
• Ed Atkins’s Us Dead Talk Love (2012), on identity and authenticity in the digital age

The exhibition spans two floors, with video projections, mirrored surfaces, glass walls, and television monitors building an immersive environment. Works by Viola, Tillmans, and Rosemarie Trockel will hang together in a grouping that traces the human experience from birth onward.

What does this change for visitors?

For one thing, Düsseldorf becomes the foundation’s sole German base. The Berlin exhibition space closed at the end of October after a decade of programming, and the foundation is now concentrating on Düsseldorf and international projects. The headquarters — a converted industrial building dating to 1907 — has been extensively renovated by Berlin architecture firm Kuehn Malvezzi, the same practice that originally adapted the space for exhibitions in 2007.

For Stoschek, whose collection now counts more than 1,000 works by over 300 artists, the anniversary invites a look back at two decades of collecting. “I am a very emotional collector,” Stoschek said in a statement. “An artwork has to get under my skin. I need images that stay with me.”

A publication marking the 20th anniversary accompanies the exhibition, with contributions from writers and critics including Rachel Cusk, Chris Kraus, Dean Kissick, and McKenzie Wark.

“Selfish in Bed” runs April 10 through December 19, 2027, with an opening reception on April 9. The long eight-month run gives the reopened building its first full test as the foundation’s flagship venue.