It will be visible from a distance already and it shines at night: the ten-meter-wide neon sculpture "Good God" by Berlin artist and 2009 Villa Aurora fellow Via Lewandowsky. Mounted at a lofty height between the towers of the east chancel of the Bamberg Dome, which is more than 1000 years old, it will be radiating from the Domberg onto the city, thus simultaneously describing a central leitmotif of the exhibition in the neighboring Diözesanmuseum.

Contemporary art by around 60 artists from all over the world as well as selected pieces of modern art correspond with religious art, with works by Tilman Riemenschneider or Veit Stoß, the imperial coats of Henry II and his wife Kunigunde. High-ranking goldsmiths' art and precious items made of ivory meet artworks of contemporary materials such as concrete, steel, photopaper or plastic: Julian Charrière melts down computer scrap, Karsten Konrad uses waste from household dissolutions and from scrap yards: Pots, parts of old furniture or shopping-mall vases from the 1960s. Ernst Barlach's first model sculpture for Der Schwebende (The Floating), den Engel von Güstrow (the Angel of Güstrow), made of plaster and covered with yellow lacquer, speaks to the golden ornament of Pope Clement II from the first half of the 11th century.

Even older than the 'Christian' art from the museum's collection is Ai Weiwei's Coca-Cola-Vase: the logo of the American soft drink company was painted in red by the Chinese artist on a vessel from the Han Dynasty. The dynasty of the Han Emperors is dated between 206 B.C. and 220 A.D., the object is presented between the golden goblets of the museum. The secular works of art invited into the cathedral treasure do not consider themselves religious works and were not produced exclusively for the exhibition.
The curators of the exhibition, the Berlin curator and exhibition organizer Alexander Ochs as well as the art historian and director of the Diözesanmuseum Dr. Holger Kempkens, do not classify the exhibited works in a theological or art historical way. Instead, lines and spaces of association with concepts such as touch, celebration, time, violence, and other themes are created.

Amongst others, the exhibition presents the works of the following artists:

Ai Weiwei / Robert Barta / Ernst Barlach / Georg Baselitz / Joseph Beuys / Guillaume Bruère / Paula Döpfner / Valerie Favre / Nan Goldin / Pedro Gomez-Eganna / Antony Gormley / Richard Haizmann / Beate Hönig / Leiko Ikemura / Ik-Joong Kang / Karsten Konrad / Andréas Lang / Via Lewandowsky / Anna Malagrida / Oliver Mark / Meng Huang / Michael Müller / Mwangi Hutter / Hermann Nitsch / Meret Oppenheim / Yvonne Roeb / Ralf Schmerberg / Karl Schmidt-Rottluff / Alf Setzer / Jorinde Voigt / Simon Wachsmuth / Andy Warhol / Yin Xiuzhen / John Young / Young-Jae Lee / Andrius Zakarauskas

The opening of the exhibition takes place July 26th 2019 at 11 a.m. at the Bamberg Dome.

From July 27th on, the exhibition will be open every day from tuesday to sunday.