An exhibition on the Anthropocene with photographs by Christoph Antweiler, which ran at the Deutsches Museum in Munich in 2024, will be on display at the University Museum in Bonn from 27 November 2025 to 31 January 2026.
The opening at the University Museum Bonn is on Thursday, 27 November at 5 p.m.
We are the Anthropocene -The horror and beauty of global change
Opening: Thursday, 27 November 2025, 5 p.m
Photo exhibition, University Museum Bonn
Today, there is no place on earth untouched by humans. Man-made change goes far beyond climate change. It also affects soils, oceans, plants, animals and geochemical cycles. In short, we humans have become a significant geological factor. We humans have an impact as powerful as that of natural forces such as volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. Our actions today will have an effect far into the geological future. That is why we speak of a new geological epoch of humans, the ‘Anthropocene’. According to current research, this new geological epoch began in the middle of the twentieth century. In this photographic exhibition, ethnologist and geologist Christoph Antweiler from our university's Institute of Oriental and Asian Studies (IOA) shows the causes and consequences of this problematic development.
The term Anthropocene sums up a multiple crisis and the resulting uncertainties and fears. Despite apocalyptic prospects, however, there is also hope. Societies can undergo fundamental change, and we humans can change our own behaviour. This is also heralded by the unsettling beauty of the technosphere, which is also examined here. Humans don't just make history: they make geological history. Common concepts of sustainability are too short-sighted. In five sections, the exhibition explores the tension between despair and hope. It deals with landscape change, our consumer behaviour, artificial materials such as plastic, rapid urbanisation and, finally, graffiti as an artistic response. The photographs focus on Germany and countries in Asia.
Thursday, 27.11.25 - 17:00 - Saturday, 31.01.26 - 19:00 at University Museum Bonn
More: https://www.bora.uni-bonn.de/de/aktivitaeten/veranstaltungen/wir-sind-das-anthropozaen-schrecken-schoenheit-des-globalen-wandels
