gezeichnete Figuren mit Megafonen in der Hand laufen vor einem grauen Hintergrund
© William Kentridge, 2025

William Kentridge. Listen to the Echo

William Kentridge is one of the world’s most important contemporary artists. Starting in September 2025 the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and the Museum Folkwang in Essen are dedicating an extensive exhibition project to the internationally acclaimed artist William Kentridge to mark his 70th birthday.

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William Kentridge. Listen to the Echo | Trailer

Ausgangspunkt

Kentridge came to international prominence in the late 1980s for his animated short films dealing with the South African apartheid regime. These films, which are based on large-format charcoal drawings, form the starting point for an extensive and diverse body of works that encompasses drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and tapestry, as well as opera productions and multimedia stage plays. The Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden will be presenting Kentridge’s work in several locations at the same time.

Im Residenzschloss

At the artist’s request, the Kupferstich-Kabinett, will be holding its first major exhibition of his prints in the Residenzschloss. In experimental, often large-scale, works, Kentridge employs traditional printing techniques for contemporary pictorial inventions. Additional smaller-scale presentations in the Residenzschloss will create links between Kentridge’s themes and works of art in the electoral collections, such as the Triumphal Procession by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna.

Zeichnung eines Nashorns vor einem Futternapf
© William Kentridge, 2005
William Kentridge, Three Rhinos (3 von 3), 2005

Im Albertinum

The Albertinum will be showing William Kentridge’s large-format works in various media. The conceptual point of reference will be the Procession of Princes (Fürstenzug), completed in 1907. Measuring more than 100 metres in length, this mural in the heart of Dresden’s old city centre depicts a procession of all the rulers of Saxony on thousands of Meissen porcelain tiles. The preliminary drawing of the same dimensions will enter into dialogue with Kentridge’s monumental work More Sweetly Play the Dance from 2015, a multiscreen procession of heroic figures and misfits engaged in something between a parade and a danse macabre.

Silhouetten von Menschen mit Blasinstrumenten vor einem grauen Hintergrund
© William Kentridge, 2025
William Kentridge, Still aus „More Sweetly Play The Dance", 2014

In der Puppentheatersammlung

The Puppentheatersammlung is inviting the Centre for the Less Good Idea from Johannesburg, under the mentorship of William Kentridge, to curate the 2025/2026 annual exhibition at its new location in Dresden’s Kraftwerk Mitte. Founded by Kentridge in 2016, the Centre has quickly established itself as an internationally acclaimed venue for experimental, collaborative, and interdisciplinary art practices involving theatre, dance, music, and performance. In Dresden, artists from the Centre will reactivate the historical puppets in the collection and bring them to life through artistic interventions.

drei Männer halten Puppen in die Luft
© The Centre for the Less Good Idea, Foto: Zivanai Matangi
Workshop im Centre for the Less Good Idea
exhibition of the Kupferstich-Kabinett at Residenzschloss
06/09/2025—15/02/2026

William Kentridge. Listen to the Echo

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© William Kentridge, 2024
exhibition at Albertinum
06/09/2025—04/01/2026

William Kentridge. Listen to the Echo

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© William Kentridge, 2025
exhibition of the Puppentheatersammlung at the Kraftwerk Mitte
06/09/2025—28/06/2026

William Kentridge. Listen to the Echo

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© The Centre for the Less Good Idea, Foto: Zivanai Matangi

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Weißer Schriftzug "Kulturstiftung des Bundes" auf schwarzem Hintergrund
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Further Exhibitions

Kupferstich-Kabinett

in Residenzschloss

Portrait eines Mannes mit Hut und Vollbart

Art from the Romantic period to the present day

in Albertinum

[Translate to English:]

Puppentheatersammlung

in Kraftwerk Mitte

[Translate to English:]

Porzellansammlung

in Zwinger

Teekanne aus Porzellan
All Exhibitions

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