Dream On Baby

The childhood dreams, desires and traumas of some of the most interesting contemporary artists What drives us to make art? Marina Abramovic, VALIE EXPORT, Ai Weiwei, Marcel Dzama, Mona Hatoum, Jeff Koons, and many more

Childhood never lets go of anyone. For many artists, it was the trigger for making art in the first place, and still is what drives them today. For Dream On Baby, Gesine Borcherdt asked 33 artists, including Ai Weiwei, Marina Abramovic, Lynda Benglis, Vaginal Davis, Marcel Dzama, Mona Hatoum, Jeff Koons, Gregor Schneider, and Jordan Wolfson, about their memories of childhood. The result is an anthology of deeply personal, sometimes tragic, sometimes funny, often heartbreaking and always surprising stories. Accompanied by never-before-seen childhood photographs and drawings, this book sheds new light on what it means to make art. GESINE BORCHERDT (*1976, Braunschweig) is a Berlin-based curator, art critic and author for Art Review, Ursula, Welt am Sonntag, ART, and ADGermany. Recent exhibitions include Dream Baby Dream (2020) revolving around childhood fantasies and traumas, and Home Is Where Youre Happy (2023) at Haus Mödrath in Kerpen, Germany.