What is the origin of time?
Artist Alicja Kwade and Prof. Thomas Hertog in dialogue about time, space and perception
Gegen den Lauf, Alicja Kwade © Alicja Kwade, courtesy van de kunstenaar
Alicja Kwade’s solo exhibition
This lecture finds a visual counterpart in Alicja Kwade’s work and her solo exhibition at M, in which parallel realities and multiple perspectives play a central role. Her sculptural installations open up spaces in which time is not felt as linear, but as layered, uncertain, and dependent on where you stand. The viewer is, as it were, multiplied across time and space, raising the question of whether we ever truly possess a single, fixed perspective – an inquiry that also lies at the heart of contemporary cosmology.
Room view ‘1417+ (16.08.2013)’, Alicja Kwade, 2013, in ‘Degree of Certainty’, 2013, Kunstmuseum Krefeld, photo: Volker Döhne © Alicja Kwade, courtesy of the artist
‘The Seats of the Worlds’, Alicja Kwade, 2024, photo: Roman März © Alicja Kwade, courtesy of the artist
‘Superheavy Skies’, Alicja Kwade, 2022, photo: Justin Craun © Alicja Kwade, courtesy of 303 Gallery, New York
Room view ‘Sub-Stance', Alicja Kwade, 2019, in ‘Kausalkonsequenz’, 2020, Langen Foundation, photo: Roman März © Alicja Kwade, courtesy of the artist
Room view ‘Nach Osten’, Alicja Kwade, 2011, in ‘Nach Osten’, 2015, TRAFO, 2025, photo: Roman März © Alicja Kwade, courtesy of the artist
‘Eadem Mutata Resurgo’, Alicja Kwade, 2014, photo: Fabrice Seixas © Alicja Kwade, courtesy of the artist
About Alicja Kwade
Alicja Kwade (°1979 in Katowice, Poland) lives and works in Berlin. She has exhibited widely at institutions including Louisiana Museum in Humlebæk, Whitechapel Gallery in London, MIT List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge (VS), Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart in Berlin, Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo and Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich.
Kwade received international recognition for her participation in the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. Another temporary installation that received much attention is the one she made specially for the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2019.
Kwade’s works are part of numerous public collections, such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, LACMA – Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mudam - Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean in Luxembourg and mumok - Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig in Vienna.
At M, the artist presents a selection of key works from her recent practice, complemented by new installations specially created for the museum.
Foto: Alicja Kwade door Doro Zinn
About Prof. Dr. Thomas Hertog
Prof. Dr. Thomas Hertog is a cosmologist and professor of theoretical physics at KU Leuven, specializing in quantum cosmology and string theory. He obtained his PhD at the University of Cambridge under Stephen Hawking, before continuing his research at institutions including the University of California and CERN. Hertog collaborated closely with Hawking for more than twenty years, carrying out groundbreaking research into the origins of the universe and the nature of time.
In 2023, he published On the Origin of Time: Stephen Hawking’s Final Theory, in which he presents time as an emergent, non-linear property and integrates this concept within the field of contemporary cosmology. Hertog is widely recognized not only for his lucid scientific work but also for his gift for making complex cosmological ideas accessible to a broad audience.
Foto: Gert Verbelen
About Marc-Olivier Wahler
Marc-Olivier Wahler is Director of the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva and former Director of institutions such as the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and the Swiss Institute in New York.
He is known for his vision of museums as living ecosystems where art, science, and imagination engage in dialogue. Wahler has previously collaborated with Alicja Kwade and shares her fascination with perception, matter, and the ways in which art challenges our notions of time and reality. In his exhibitions, as in Kwade’s work, the boundary between what we see and what we think we know is constantly shifting. During this evening, he will moderate the conversation between Alicja Kwade and cosmologist Thomas Hertog.
Marc Olivier Wahler, photo: Marianne Percherancier