How can the evolution of contemporary art serve as a lens through which to understand the history of counterculture—a phenomenon that continues to influence artistic approaches today? This question serves as a guiding force behind the exhibition »Inner Mornings, or Forms of Counterculture«. Building on the ideas of Henry David Thoreau—whose poem The Inward Morning gives the exhibition its title—as well as on the writings of Michel Foucault and Félix Guattari, the concept of counterculture is understood here as active, discursive, and transformative.

Across four thematic sections—“Claiming the multiplication of points of view and voices”, “See, show, divert and denounce”, “Rereading history, another story”, and “Shock, shake, upset, move the lines”—the exhibition presents photographic practices that rewrite historical narratives, set the boundary between the center and the margins of society in motion, question relations of power, and render visible aesthetic strategies of irritation and resistance, thereby opening up alternative artistic, political, and imaginative spaces.

The interplay of three major collections—the Falckenberg Collection and the collections of the FRAC des Pays de la Loire and the Musée d’arts de Nantes—further gives rise to a dynamic institutional dialogue. How is counterculture collected, mediated, and understood in different contexts? What emerges is a multifaceted picture of art as a means of questioning social realities and opening up new perspectives.

Drawing on the life and work of the French writer and photographer Claude Cahun (1894–1954)—a key figure in the exhibition’s concept through her resistance to all social conventions and to National Socialism—INNER MORNINGS presents works by Soufiane Ababri, Vito Acconci, Halil Altındere, Roy Arden, Maja Bajević, John Baldessari, Lewis Baltz, Jerry Berndt, John Bock, Christian Boltanski, Olaf Breuning, Chris Burden, Victor Burgin, Camille Orso Caël, Claude Cahun, Mircea Cantor, Claire Chevrier, Larry Clark, Allana Clarke, Michael Clegg & Martin Guttmann, Robin Collyer, Jordi Colomer, Jeremy Deller, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, William Eggleston, Erró, Gilbert & George, Walker Evans, VALIE EXPORT, Öyvind Fahlström, Christelle Familiari, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Fischli & Weiss, Lee Friedlander, General Idea, Nan Goldin, Hans Haacke, Clarisse Hahn, Raymond Hains, Dennis Hopper, Peter Hujar, Charles Johnstone, Mike Kelley, Jürgen Klauke, Astrid Klein, Karen Knorr, Arthur Koepcke, Jiří Kovanda, Ange Leccia, Sharon Lockhart, Urs Lüthi, Carlos Martiel, Paul McCarthy, Jean-Luc Moulène, Henrik Olesen, Kristin Oppenheim, Daniela Ortiz, Adrian Paci, Gina Pane, Pierre et Gilles, Peter Piller, Bernard Plossu, Sigmar Polke, Richard Prince, Walid Raad, Gerhard Richter, Sophie Ristelhueber, Martha Rosler, Anri Sala, Santiago Sierra, Andrea Stappert, Tomoko Takahashi, Wolfgang Tillmans, Patrick Tosani, Endre Tót, Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Heidi Wood and Artur Żmijewski.