December 1st, 1988
Large installation in the city center of Cologne, between the Ludwig Museum and the Cologne Cathedral: "Neunter November Nacht" (Ninth November Night)
A four-meter-high, hundred-meter-long picture lane in which Helnwein recalls the "Reichskristallnacht", the beginning of the Holocaust, on 9 November 1938. He confronts the passersby with larger-than-life children's faces lined up in a seemingly endless row, as if for concentration camp selection. Just days into the exhibit, these portraits were vandalized by unknown persons, symbolically cutting the throats of the depicted children's faces. Since then large scale installations in public spaces became an important part of his work

Selektion, Neunter November Nacht, (Ninth November Night), 1988

100m-long (300 feet) Installation
First installation: at the Ludwig Museum in Cologne
Scanachrome on Vinyl
each picture 370 x 250 cm, 146 x 98 inches

PRESENCE AND TIME: GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN'S PICTURES

Lentos Museum of Modern Art Linz
Stella Rollig
Director
2006