Liebieghaus
Skulpturensammlung
Schaumainkai 71
60596 Frankfurt am Main
10.00 am to 6.00 pm
Liebieghaus
Skulpturensammlung
Schaumainkai 71
60596 Frankfurt am Main
10.00 am to 6.00 pm
Liebieghaus
Skulpturensammlung
Schaumainkai 71
60596 Frankfurt am Main
10.00 am to 6.00 pm
How Our Future Was Invented
Extended until 1/21/2024
Purchase your ticket now.
The Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung is devoting an exhibition to one of the most exciting connections in the history of mankind—the connection between art and technology. It is a global narrative, full of cryptic fables, myths and visions, fictive and real innovations and outstanding masterworks. The exhibition will shed light on the history of the sciences in antiquity and the Arabic and Asiatic cultures and their influence on the development of art. Technology and art were closely intertwined in antiquity. The Greek term “techne” stands for all “arts”—engineering, construction, et cetera. Primarily, it concerns the knowledge and study of the human mind. Scientific research was pursued with the aim of advancing the human civilization and culture. Whether the pyramids by the ancient Egyptian mastermind Imhotep, the mechanical automata and animated sculptures described by the Greek author Heron or experiments with the first camera obscura by the Arab mathematician Alhazen—they all exemplify how scientific and artistic work go hand in hand.
The Frankfurt exhibition will feature 97 prominent objects from international museum collections such as the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Musei Capitolini in Rome and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, as well as from the Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung’s own holdings, including the “Statuette of Imhotep” (Egypt, 332–30 BC), the “Statue of Athena” (Roman, AD 1st c.), the “Buddha head” (Cambodia, Angkor Wat, end of 12th–beg. of 13th c.), a “Universal Astrolabe” (by Aḥmad ibn as-Sarrāǧ, Syria, 1328–1329), the “Maria Immaculata” (by Matthias Steinl, Vienna, 1688) and the “Apollo Kithara” (by Jeff Koons, 2019–2022). The multimedia exhibition architecture will transform the entire Liebieghaus into a museum in which art and science of more than five millennia come to life.
Curator: Prof. Dr. Vinzenz Brinkmann (Head of the Department of Antiquities and Asia, Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung)
Project management: Jakob Salzmann, assistant curator (Department of Antiquities and Asia, Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung)
Visit “Holbein and the Renaissance in the North” at the Städel Museum and get free admission to “Machine Room of the Gods” on the same day. Valid from 1 December until 23 December 2023. Special events are excluded.
“The exhibition at Frankfurt’s Liebieghaus offers an unobstructed view of ancient science and its influence on the history of culture. In antiquity we can observe how science was the point of departure for a conception of a fantastical future technology—much as we know it today from the science fiction genre.”
Statue of Athena, Roman, 1st cent. CE
Roman, 1st cent. CE (copy of a Greek bronze original by Myron)
Marble, H. 173.5 cm
Frankfurt am Main, Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, inv. no. 195
Photo: Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, Frankfurt am Main
Apollo Kithara, Jeff Koons, 2019-2022
Jeff Koons (*1955), 2019-2022
polychromed PMMA and animatronic snake
233.6 x 110.7 x 77 cm
New York, Jeff Koons Studio
© Jeff Koons, Photo: Eftychia Vlachou, Courtesy DESTE Foundation
“Apollo Kithara” (2019-2022) by Jeff Koons features Apollo, the god of music, playing a kithara, which depicts both the masculine and the feminine. “Apollo Kithara” is a polychromed sculpture that stands over 2.3 meters tall with an animatronic snake. The sculpture references a marble statue of Apollo with a kithara in the British Museum collection, originally from the Temple of Apollo (Cyrene), Libya, Africa. Apollo is one of the sun gods, so he is placed at the core ofthe concept of transcendence.
Music accompanies the visual presentation of “Apollo Kithara” enhancing the viewer’s experience. The sounds of an ancient kithara, considered the origin of today’s guitar, is layered with contemporary acapella tracks including Rihanna, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, and Lil Uzi Vert. The two musical formats are at timesdisjointed and at other moments find sublime beauty.
Statuette of the ibis-headed Egyptian god Thoth, Egypt, 400–200 BCE
Egypt, 400–200 BCE
Faience, H. 11.1 cm, W. 3 cm, D. 3.9 cm
Munich, Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst, inv. no. ÄS 7908
Photo: Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst, München, Roy Hessing
Elephant Clock, Iraq, 1315 CE
Iraq, 1315 CE
Ink, watercolour and gold on paper, H. 51 cm, W. 38.7 cm
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 57.51.23
Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Statuette of Imhotep, Egypt, 332–30 BCE
Egypt, 332–30 BCE
Cupreous metal, precious metal inlay, H. 14 cm, W. 4.8 cm, D. 9.8 cm
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 26.7.852a, b
Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Cuneiform tablet, Mesopotamia, late 1st mill. BCE
Mesopotamia, late 1st mill. BCE
Clay, H. 8.1 cm, W. 6.5 cm, D. 2.2 cm
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 86.11.61
Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Portrait head of Aristotle, Roman, 1st–2nd cent. CE
Roman, 1st–2nd cent. CE after a Greek original of the 4th century BC
Marble, H. 30.5 cm
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv. no. ANSA I 246
Photo: KHM-Museumsverband
Water vessel, Greek, 525 BCE
Greek, 525 BCE
Clay, H. 41.5 cm, diam. 37.5 cm
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv. no. ANSA IV 3577
Photo: KHM-Museumsverband
Digital reconstruction of the Antikythera Mechanism, Tony Freeth
Tony Freeth
Photo: Tony Freeth
Please contact us to arrange your group visit—even if you do not wish to book a guided tour.
Telephone: +49(0)69-605098-200
E-Mail:
For a complete overview of the programme accompanying the exhibition, please visit the German exhibition page.
The book accompanying the exhibition deals with the latest research on science and technology in myth and art from antiquity to the golden age of Arab-Islamic culture. Light is shed on the early precise records of astronomical events, as well as the technology of automata and kinetic sculpture.
Available in the museum shop and in our online shop.
Mounted throughout the presentation of the Liebieghaus collection, the exhibition offers captivating dialogues between Liebieghaus works and loans from international museum holdings. The tour of the show covers a period of more than five millennia.
Our knowledge of European antiquity comes above all from the cultures of Egypt and the Middle East. The Greeks and Romans developed it further, enhancing it in the process with philosophical thought. As there were hardly boundaries but merely spheres of influence, scientific experience spread across entire regions and new knowledge emerged. Yet that development ended in late antiquity wherever the sciences were suppressed for religious reasons. Wars, crusades and the influence of the Christian church in Western Europe posed a threat to the knowledge amassed by antiquity. In the Arabic-Islamic cultural region, on the other hand, the accomplishments of the ancient sciences and philosophy were translated and developed further. From the eighth to the fifteenth centuries, Baghdad, Cairo, Samarqand and Damascus were centres of knowledge with prominent scholars and universities in the Arabic sphere. Only gradually did their insights trickle to Europe, where they would ultimately meet with a resounding response in the Renaissance.
Sponsored by: Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne, Gemeinnützige Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain GmbH, Freunde der Tat des Städelschen Museums-Vereins e. V.
With additional support from: Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft Frankfurt am Main
Media partner: Frankfurter Rundschau
Cultural partner: hr2-kultur
