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Pirelli HangarBicocca brings together the largest collection of slideshows ever presented in the first retrospective dedicated to Nan Goldin not only as a photographer, but as a multimedia artist. Until 15 February 2026, eight works in the form of slideshows and a new sound installation occupy the space of the Navate thanks to architectural designs created to make the visitor experience even more engaging.

Curated by Roberta Tenconi with Lucia Aspesi, featuring architectural structures designed by Hala Wardé, This Will Not End Well, exhibited at the Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan, intimately portrays, through slideshows composed of frames, Nan Goldin’s joie de vivre and her relationships. The exhibition, organised by major European museums, is part of a tour, curated by Fredrik Liew, former guest of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, which will continue on to the Grand Palais in Paris.
In Milan, the exhibition stands out for the addition of two new slideshows, You Never Did Anything Wrong (2024) and Stendhal Syndrome (2024), along with the sound installation Bleeding, specially created by Soundwalk Collective. This piece collects ambient recordings from previous This Will Not End Well exhibitions, breaking them into fragments and recombining them into a loop that accompanies visitors throughout their experience.

NAN GOLDIN’S EXHIBITION IN MILAN

The exhibition is meticulously detailed, with architectural designs shaping intimate spaces that allow visitors to view each slideshow privately. The environment created by Wardé, quoting the architect from the exhibition catalog, is “a village made of visible structures that express themselves like living bodies […] like instruments in an orchestra playing in unison”. Each structure is specifically designed according to the subject of the slideshow it houses, and each architectural composition is tailored for the museum in which it is installed. This reflects a collaborative curatorial approach rooted in a dialogue between space, the artist, architecture, and the exhibition itself.

THE WORKS ON DISPLAY AT THE PIRELLI HANGARBICOCCA

This Will Not End Well is a retrospective whose selection perfectly encapsulates the artist’s work. Nan Goldin from early on has documented her personal universe of relationships through photography while shining a light on urgent contemporary issues. The exhibition presents a comprehensive picture that captures moments of not only artistic but vital evolution. Through thousands of frames, the exhibition evokes tenderness and the purity of a perspective that stirs nostalgia.
The exhibition starts with the slideshow The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1981-2022), Goldin’s most famous piece, which gathers moments of life and portraits of her closest loved ones. The work is constantly evolving, updated, and re-edited, never appearing the same as in previous exhibitions. Memory Lost (2019-2021) offers a moving narrative about abstinence: Nan Goldin appears deeply attached to everything and manages to make the viewer feel that attachment as well. Sirens (2019-2020) documents the pleasure brought on by drugs through a montage of images taken from various sources, paying homage to top model Donyale Luna, who died in 1979 from a heroin overdose. 

In Fire Leap (2010-2022), Goldin captures godchildren and children of friends, punctuating the narrative with songs sung by children. The Other Side (1992-2021) gives visibility to those often unseen, referencing the queer club of the same name in Boston during the 1970s, while Stendhal Syndrome (2024) juxtaposes Renaissance artworks with the artist’s intimate relationships. In the latest structure designed by Wardé, You Never Did Anything Wrong (2024) metaphorically describes living on Earth through animal subjects. Finally, in the “Cube” space of the Pirelli HangarBicocca, Sisters, Saints, Sibyls (2004-2022) unfolds, mixing three stories told across three screens in an impressive installation inspired by the original commission for the Chapel of the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris in 2004.

NAN GOLDIN’S ARTISTIC LANGUAGE

This Will Not End Well speaks with the language of sincere activism ‒ of someone who has fought their whole life for what they believe in. It is the final word of those who hold on to hope that things can end well, the voice of those who still believe when all seems lost. In the exhibition, Goldin openly addresses Palestine and P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), an activist group founded by the artist in 2017 in response to the opioid crisis, mentioned in the acknowledgments at the end of Memory Lost.
The artist tells her story, her relationships, and everything around her. The subject of her images is the human being totally human, even when invisible or forgotten. The exhibition nurtures empathy, encouraging love and tenderness even in suffering. This Will Not End Well is a long, intimate video memory: even if things don’t end well, Nan Goldin reminds us that photography is still alive.

Rebecca Canavesi

Nan Goldin’s exhibition at the Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan

The text has been translated in English using AI