BAD, an exhibition by Gregor Schneider, will open at the National Museum of Art of Romania (MNAR) next week.
Gregor Schneider is one of Germany’s best-known contemporary artists. A professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, he was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for his work Totes Haus u r, presented at the German Pavilion in 2001, which sparked strong reactions worldwide. Since then, his controversial and provocative yet consistently rigorous and highly influential works, events, performances, and installations have addressed pressing artistic, social, historical, and political issues in locations around the world, the organizers explain.
BAD is a spatial installation comprising five identical, interconnected bathrooms installed on the ground floor of the National Gallery, in MNAR’s Știrbei Building. Their dimensions, design, sanitary fixtures, lighting, and every other detail are exactly the same.
“They reflect contemporary notions of cleanliness, comfort, accessibility, and seamless functionality. And yet it is precisely this seemingly effortless availability that presents a problem, turning the bathrooms into a trap-like mechanism, much like any comfortable, readily available solution to a need that gradually becomes a compulsive habit.” The exhibition explores “how each of us is trapped in the echo chamber of our own habits, thoughts, and surroundings.”
The Bucharest exhibition runs in parallel with the major exhibition Gregor Schneider: Haus u r 2026 at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, which is on view until January 2027. The partnership between the two organizing institutions, MNAR and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, is underscored by the live-streamed video installation Haus u r, presented at MNAR at the entrance to the temporary exhibition spaces. The installation maintains a continuous, simultaneous connection between Haus u r and the exhibitions in Düsseldorf and Bucharest.
The exhibition, curated by Erwin Kessler, is on view between October 24 and March 14, 2027.