September 20, 2024 to April 27, 2025

SEEING TRUTH - Art, Science and Museums in the Production of Knowledge

How do we see the world?

Where should we go to find the truth? And whose truths should we believe?

On the basis of these guiding questions, the exhibition “Seeing Truth” shows how art, science and museums have worked together to produce – and sometimes distort – truth and knowledge. With examples from two centuries, visitors can discover how illustrators, painters, photographers, sculptors and model-makers artistically process scientific research results and thus visually construct knowledge. It is not uncommon for the boundaries between art and science to disappear in the process. The exhibition's leitmotif illustrates this connection in a special way. Commissioned by the American Museum of Natural History, the illustrator Arthur A. Jansson created the cover of a scientific publication in 1929. A group of palaeontologists are working on an excavation, with the mighty figure of a Tyrannosaurus Rex appearing in the background. Here, the illustrator attempts to strike a balance between scientific precision and trivialization and represents the art form of “paleo-art”, which is still alive today. Artists add their ideas of muscles, skin and colors to the remains of prehistoric animals and thus reconstruct the prehistoric animal and a corresponding environment. Other works in the exhibition show how art has shaped our view of the invisible and obscure (e.g. UFOs) or how artists have long been involved in the visual construction of human types on behalf of scientific research institutions. Works by the Heidelberg artist Joachim Lutz, who accompanied research expeditions to Africa at the end of the 1920s, are shown as examples of this. Contemporary artists such as the US-American Ben Ripley attempt to deconstruct such categorizations in an exciting way. The exhibition is the result of a collaboration between the Mark Twain Center for Transatlantic Relations and the Humanities Institute at the University of Connecticut, USA, and was developed in close connection with the research project “The Future of Truth”. “The Future of Truth” is an interdisciplinary research project led by Prof. Alexis L. Boylan and Prof. Michael P. Lynch, which is partially funded by a generous donation from the Henry Luce Foundation. It examines what truth is today and whether and how it will be important in the future. More about the project at: https://futureoftruth.uconn.edu/

Information on visiting the exhibition

Opening hours
Wednesday to Sunday from 1 to 6 pm
closed on December 24, 25, 31 and January 1


Admission
Admission is free.


Guided tours
General information about guided tours can be found here.


Supporting program
Guided tours, lectures. Click here for the digital calendar of events.


Contact us
Römerstr. 162, 69126 Heidelberg
Telephone 06221 58-34065
from Monday to Thursday: 08.30-13:00,
Friday: 08.30-14.30
E-mail: mark-twain-center@heidelberg.de


Accessibility
The special exhibition area is accessible without steps. Spacious toilets and a disabled toilet are available. Further information on the accessibility of the museum for people with various disabilities can be found here. 

Auf den Punkt gebracht

100 Jahre Marie Marcks

Marie Marcks (1922-2014) created her first works for the U.S. Army in Heidelberg. With unmistakable graphic finesse, she later dealt with U.S. foreign policy and central social problems. 

We showed a comprehensive review of the diverse and still current life's work of the Heidelberg illustrator and caricaturist.

'Travel is fatal to prejudice' - Mark Twain in Heidelberg

Our first ever temporary exhibition pays homage to our Center’s namesake. Working with international partners and students from the Julius Springer School, we have put together an exhibition that illustrates Twain’s view of Heidelberg and the German people.

Background

In the spring and summer of 1878, Samuel L. Clemens – better known by his pseudonym of Mark Twain – spent more than three months in Heidelberg. He recorded the stories of his observations and encounters in an extensive travel diary, entitled A Tramp Abroad, which was published in the USA in 1880. In the early 20th century it was also translated into German as Bummel durch Europa.

Twain was already known worldwide as an author and humorist and soon settled in at the city’s most elegant hotel, high above the Castle. He also rented a room to write in, situated on the wooded slopes with a view over the town and the river. During his sojourn he gathered a wealth of impressions and observations as he visited different places in Heidelberg and the surrounding area. Like his daughter, he took German lessons, and he also tried his hand at drawing and painting. He devoted a whole chapter of his book to ‘the awful German language’, to which he and his family nevertheless remained very attached for the rest of their lives.

Apart from the descriptions of the places he visited, Twain used his trip to reflect on the traits and characteristics, real and supposed, of Germans and Americans. His observations, as he holds up a mirror to us, are frequently sarcastic and always very incisive. His style is succinct but never unkind and he became a role model for many contemporary comedians and entertainers.
 

The exhibition

As we developed our exhibition, we based our work on Twain’s account of his travels, published in A Tramp Abroad. The book consists of scenic collages, and we illustrate some of these through combinations of words, images, and contemporary artifacts that complement each other. They include his visit to the Castle, a fencing duel and a raft trip on the River Neckar. A highlight of the exhibition is a selection of the many drawings and caricatures that appeared in the original edition of Twain’s book.

How the exhibition was developed

The exhibition is the result of an international collaboration between the Mark Twain Center and the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, Connecticut. Twain lived in Hartford for nearly 20 years and had a magnificent house there which is now home to the principal Mark Twain museum. The Museum provided valuable assistance with the content of the exhibition and advised us about some of the key exhibits.

A separate contribution to our exhibition project was made by students from the Julius Springer School in Heidelberg. With the support of the Hopp Foundation for Computer Literacy & Informatics, the participating students from the technical college had the opportunity to spend six months learning about Design Thinking. Through an intensive process of teamwork they developed their own designs for modern exhibition elements.

Thanks to a generous donation from Sparkasse Heidelberg, the group were able to turn their ideas into reality – a treat in store for our visitors!

You can see an impressive result of their work here.