In dialogue with: The Body as Worldview – The Greek Kouros in Dialogue

12.02.2026, 19:00

With Prof. Dr. Anja Klöckner and Prof. Franziska Nori

The exhibition Anatomy of Fragility – Images of the Body in Art and Science opens with the Kroisos Kouros, an archaic Greek statue from the Collection of Classical Antiquities and Sculpture Hall of Goethe University Frankfurt. The two-meter-high male figure from the 6th century BCE stands upright, gazing into the distance. Rather than representing an individual body, it embodies a culturally defined ideal of the “beautiful body.” In Greek society, the free adult male was the measure of all things – symbol of a strictly hierarchical order that excluded women and slaves.

In conversation with Prof. Franziska Nori, Director of the Frankfurter Kunstverein, Prof. Dr. Anja Klöckner, Professor of Classical Archaeology at Goethe University Frankfurt, situates the Kroisos Kouros as a symbol of a standardized conception of the body and the world. Taking this ideal figure as their point of departure, they discuss how ideas of the human body shift throughout the rest of the exhibition parcours—from fixed norms and hierarchies toward the fragmented, open, and vulnerable body images of the present. The kouros thus becomes the starting point for the question of how persistently historical body ideals continue to resonate today and how contemporary art counters them with new interpretations.

This thematic guided tour is part of the exhibition’s public program. In front of the artworks themselves, we invite you to join the experts and cooperation partners for an open exchange about what the fragility of the body can mean to us all.

The tour costs €5 plus admission. No registration required. The event will take place in German.

We look forward to welcoming you!

Anatomy of Fragility – Body Images in Art and Science

02.10.2025 — 01.03.2026 | Exhibition