Maurizio Cattelan's 'Night' at Neue Nationalgalerie: A Church for Dark Times or Outdated Irony?

Maurizio Cattelan's exhibition 'Night' at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, conceived as a church for dark times, has drawn sharp criticism from a Monopol columnist who deems it a stale mix of irony, scandal, and market logic. The show, which won the Preis der Nationalgalerie, features works like 'Never' (2003), a drummer boy on the roof referencing Günter Grass's Oskar Matzerath; 'Him' (2001), a praying child Hitler; 'Novocento' (a suspended horse); and 'Pentecost' (2002), a taxidermied donkey. Cattelan describes the museum as a contemporary place of worship, stating, 'A church is a wonderful invention because it gives form to the invisible.' Director Klaus Biesenbach praised the exhibition for evoking humility and quoted Gerhard Richter: 'Art is the highest form of hope.' However, the columnist argues that Cattelan's postmodern approach, rooted in 1990s art market dynamics, fails to address contemporary political urgencies. The exhibition's reconfiguration of the Preis der Nationalgalerie, originally for artists under 40, is criticized as a betrayal of its original purpose. The columnist concludes that the show offers no real hope and is an echo chamber of commercial success, rating it 4/10.