Exhibition organized by Moderna Museet in collaboration with Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin and Grand Palais Rmn, Paris

From October 11, 2025 to February 15, 2026, Pirelli HangarBicocca presents "This Will Not End Well", the first retrospective dedicated to the work of Nan Goldin as a filmmaker. In Milan, the exhibition brings together the largest corpus of slideshows ever presented, includes a specially commissioned sound installation, and offers the opportunity to exhibit for the first time in Europe in a museum context her two most recent slideshows.
The retrospective is set up in different architectural structures, defined as pavilions, designed by architect Hala Wardé, who has collaborated with Goldin on several occasions. Each pavilion is conceived in response to a specific work, and together they form a village. Although the title of the exhibition "This Will Not End Well" may sound dark, it is simultaneously filled with a benevolent irony, and strongly expresses Goldin's "characteristic, unwavering joie de vivre."

The exhibition includes: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1981-2022), Goldin's masterpiece; The Other Side (1992-2021), a historical portrait, a tribute to trans friends through intimate and private shots taken between 1972 and 2010; Sisters, Saints, Sibyls (2004-2022), a testimony of family trauma and suicide; Fire Leap (2010-2022), an incursion into the world of childhood; Memory Lost (2019-2021), a claustrophobic trip in substance abuse withdrawal; and finally Sirens (2019-2020), a journey into drug ecstasy. In Milan, the installation Sisters, Saints and Sibyls (2004-2022) will be presented inside the "Cube," a space where the dimensions and height - exceeding 20 meters - recall the architectural nature of La Chapelle de la Salpêtrière in Paris, where the work was originally commissioned and exhibited in 2004. The installation at Pirelli HangarBicocca will be reproduced in a faithful form to the original, which also includes the sculptural elements, visible from an elevated platform.

As part of the exhibition at Pirelli HangarBicocca hosted in the Navate, two additional slideshows will be included: You Never Did Anything Wrong (2024), Goldin's first abstract work, inspired by an ancient myth that an eclipse is caused by animals stealing the sun, is a poetic meditation on life, death, and the natural cycles that connect all living beings. The second work, Stendhal Syndrome (2024), is based on six myths from Ovid's "Metamorphoses" that come to life through portraits of Goldin's friends in a visual dialogue through time, where the artist's personal experience intertwines with her shots of paintings and sculptures from museums around the world.

Furthermore, the exhibition will open with a new sound installation by the collective Soundwalk Collective, conceived in close collaboration with the artist. Like a sort of prelude, the work will guide visitors to Goldin's symbolic slideshow village.