X-RAY - The Power of Roentgen Vision – Exhibitions – Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte

9.11.25 – 16.8.26 X-RAY The Power of Roentgen Vision

X-RAY is the first exhibition ever to comprehensively dedicate itself to the phenomenon of X-rays and the numerous cultural and artistic aspects of the X-ray vision. Based on the wide spectrum of X-ray technology – from the very first X-ray image to historic X-ray devices in medicine and the natural sciences, and up to the latest X-ray satellite in space research – the exhibition particularly highlights the creative interplay of the X-ray gaze in art and cultural history, politics, nature, literature and architecture, music, fashion, and cinema.

On November 8, 2025, it will be exactly 130 years since Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen first consciously perceived X-rays in his Würzburg laboratory as a previously unknown phenomenon. Only a few weeks later, this groundbreaking discovery spread like wildfire around the globe, inspiring not only scientists but also visual artists, musicians, filmmakers, and cartoonists.

This fascination remains unbroken to this day, as demonstrated by the X-RAY experience parcours: In the industrial cathedral of the Blower Hall, it unites an X-ray chapel by Wim Delvoye as well as a transparent brick labyrinth by Cris Bierrenbach, a catwalk featuring X-ray fashion, and a cinema for X-RAY films.

Across 18 chapters, a striking panorama of modernity and the present unfolds: Here, Marie Curie encounters Claude Cahun, Frida Kahlo, Isa Genzken, and Iris van Herpen; John Heartfield meets Edvard Munch, Mies van der Rohe, Thomas Mann, and William Wegman. X-RAY makes the invisible visible – turning art and science into a tangible experience.

“X-rays permeate our modernity and present in an utterly unique way: Thanks to them we experience medicine, politics, history, art, and nature differently – even concepts like gender roles are redefined. We literally glimpse at otherwise hidden layers of ourselves and our environment – from the molecules and codes of our bodies, to the most distant galaxies of outer space,” says curator Dr. Ralf Beil.

Artists & Scientists

Catalogue

The catalogue book X-RAY, edited by Ralf Beil and Thomas Zaunschirm, will be published in both German and English by Sandstein Kultur, Dresden. In addition to essays by Daniel Bauer, Ralf Beil, Beatriz Colomina, Ernst-Peter Fischer, Stefan Gronert, Shahram Khosravi, Matthis Krischel, Peter Predehl, Thomas Zaunschirm, and other authors, this richly illustrated publication contains introductory texts and commentaries on works from all chapters of the exhibition, as well as literary, scientific, and political source texts from 1895 to the present, including texts by Amy Bartlett, C.H.T. Crosthwaite, Marie Curie, Maxim Dondyuk, Thomas Mann, Christa Reinig, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, Sumayya Vally, Jiri Wolker, and Virginia Woolf.

The publication will be released on March 18, 2026. Until this date, a subscription price of 40 EUR applies for pre-orders. Afterwards, the catalogue will cost 48 EUR in the museum shop and 58 EUR in bookstores.

The programm of events

Alongside the exhibition, the World Heritage Site Völklinger Hütte is presenting a wide range of guided tours and workshops for children and young people on themes with political, scientific, artistic, or biographical focus: “Power and Violence of the X-ray Gaze,” “How X-rays Connect Science and the World,” “Under the Surface – Tracing My Inner Self,” and “In Search of Mister X.”

In addition, an X-RAY film program will be shown in cooperation with Kino 8 ½ and Filmhaus Saarbrücken.

Exhibition tour

Mediengalerie

Press Commments on X-RAY

„Marylin Monroes Thorax-Aufnahme, ein acht Meter großes Masthuhn und ein Kirchenfenster, das aus Röntgenbildern von Staublungen besteht. Bei der neuen Großausstellung „X-RAY – Die Macht des Röntgenblicks“ in der Völklinger Hütte kommt man aus dem Staunen gar nicht mehr heraus. […] Die Verbindungen von Wissenschafts- und Kulturgeschichte liegen vor uns, sind immer da. Wie Ralf Beil es aber schafft, diese losen Enden aufzulesen, sie in Kunstwerken, Fundstücken, medizinischen Dokumenten und Installationen von 79 Akteurinnen aus 27 Ländern zusammenzuführen, ist schlicht meisterhaft.“
Isabell Schirra, Saarbrücker Zeitung, 7. November 2025

Vernissage X-RAY

Exhibition Circuit

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X-RAY - The Power of Roentgen Vision