Nan Goldin and the museum trajectory of This Will Not End Well
Published on 08/25/2026 at 16:04 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael MĂŒller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS
Nan Goldin’s touring project This Will Not End Well has reshaped how museums present her slide shows and videos as filmic works. The multi-venue retrospective has passed through Moderna Museet, the Stedelijk Museum, Neue Nationalgalerie, Pirelli HangarBicocca and Grand Palais, anchoring Goldin in major European collections.
Retrospective through European museums
The retrospective Nan Goldin. This Will Not End Well launched at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, running from October 29, 2022 to February 26, 2023 and foregrounding Goldin’s slideshows as what she calls ‘films made up of stills’. It then traveled to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, where the exhibition was on view from August 31, 2023 to January 28, 2024 in the museum’s main galleries.
From November 23, 2024 to April 6, 2025 the tour reached Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie, marking the first extensive overview of Goldin’s work there from 1980 to the present. The Berlin presentation emphasized the cinematic and immersive character of her installations, and the museum noted that the show had previously been seen in Stockholm and Amsterdam and would continue to Milan and Paris.
Museum & collection context of the tour
In Milan, Pirelli HangarBicocca dedicated its vast industrial halls to This Will Not End Well from October 11, 2025 to February 15, 2026, presenting Goldin ‘as a filmmaker’ in collaboration with Moderna Museet, Stedelijk Museum, Neue Nationalgalerie and Grand Palais. The exhibition assembled multi-channel projections such as The Ballad of Sexual Dependency alongside more recent pieces, emphasizing the continuity of her diaristic practice.
Paris’s Grand Palais then became the French stop of the tour, presenting Nan Goldin, This Will Not End Well as the first retrospective in France focused on her videos and slideshows, described by the institution as ‘films composed of photos’. The Grand Palais framed Goldin as a key figure in contemporary photography while integrating her moving-image works into a museum architecture of pavilions designed by Hala Wardé.
All news and background on Nan Goldin
For further reporting on Nan Goldin’s exhibitions, institutional collaborations and collection presence, the AD HOC NEWS archive offers additional context and updates.
How the artist’s work enters collections
The museums hosting This Will Not End Well draw on existing holdings of Goldin’s photographs and slide works as well as loans, deepening institutional engagement with her practice. Moderna Museet and the Stedelijk Museum have collected her work since the 1990s, and the Berlin and Paris presentations extend that museum network across Germany and France.
The tour’s structure as a co-organized project between Moderna Museet, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Stedelijk Museum, Neue Nationalgalerie and Grand Palais underscores a collection logic: institutions share responsibility for preserving and presenting Goldin’s installations, which require careful projection and sound conditions. This kind of shared infrastructure is increasingly common for large-format moving-image work.
The museum framing of Goldin’s practice
As the retrospective moves across venues, it recasts canonical series such as The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, The Other Side and Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing as museum-scale installations rather than purely photographic archives. Curators highlight how her images form sequences with sound, building emotional arcs that align with cinematic montage.
Neue Nationalgalerie describes the Berlin presentation as covering Goldin’s oeuvre from 1980 to the present, with works selected to show her shift from intimate slide shows to more composed, multi-channel pieces. In Paris, the Grand Palais emphasizes the retrospective as a way to understand Goldin ‘as a filmmaker and multimedia artist’, situating her within a broader moving-image discourse.
Where the artist stands now
Against this backdrop, Nan Goldin’s work sits within a network of leading European museums that have recently devoted major touring exhibitions to her moving-image practice, while no new institutional dates fall within the current 30-day window.
Nan Goldin in museum context
- Artist: Nan Goldin
- Medium / Genre: Photography and moving-image installations (conceptual)
- Born: 1953, Washington, DC, USA
- Place(s) of practice: Studio practice between New York and Europe, including long-term work in the United States and European cities
- Active since: Late 1970s, with early slide shows in the early 1980s
- Key work groups: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, The Other Side, Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing, This Will Not End Well
- Current/last exhibition: This Will Not End Well, Grand Palais, Paris, March 18 – June 21, 2026
- Major collections: Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Neue Nationalgalerie (Berlin), Pirelli HangarBicocca (Milan, institutional presenter), Grand Palais (Paris)
- Awards: Activist recognition for her role in anti-opioid campaigns with P.A.I.N., cited in museum texts and press, though not framed as a single prize
- Next date: currently no announced date in the 30-day window
Frequently asked questions about Nan Goldin
Where has Nan Goldin’s retrospective This Will Not End Well been shown?
Since 2022 the exhibition This Will Not End Well has been presented at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan and Grand Palais in Paris, as confirmed by museum sources.
What does the Grand Palais focus on in its Nan Goldin exhibition?
The Grand Palais in Paris frames Nan Goldin, This Will Not End Well as the first French retrospective devoted to her videos and slide shows, which the institution describes as ‘films composed of photos’, emphasizing her position as a filmmaker and multimedia artist.
How do European museums contextualize Nan Goldin’s moving-image work?
Institutions such as Moderna Museet, Stedelijk Museum, Neue Nationalgalerie and Pirelli HangarBicocca highlight Goldin’s slide shows and video installations as immersive, cinematic works that combine still images with music and sound to form emotionally charged narratives.
This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.
