Haus der Kunst Museum Invites Viewers to See Art Through the Eyes of Children in "For Children" Exhibition

The central hall of the Haus der Kunst museum in Munich is covered with crayon marks on pale marble floors, marking the opening piece of the exhibition titled "Mega Please Draw Freely" by Ei Arakawa-Nash. It begins with a simple invitation for visitors to pick up a crayon and draw whatever they like. Each visitor adds patterns to the same surface, turning it into a collaborative art space where everyone takes part in the creation. This work reflects the core concept of the exhibition "For Children. Art Stories since 1968," which gathers over 20 pieces created for young audiences while giving children an active role in shaping the artworks themselves.

The historical roots of this exhibition date back to 1968 with the work of the KEKS group, a collective formed around the Munich Art Academy. The group's name comes from a German acronym combining art and education with cybernetics and sociology. The members abandoned traditional classrooms to venture into the city, using simple everyday objects as tools for joint experimentation and viewing art as something that happens between people without a finished product waiting at the end. Later in 1970, the KEKS group presented "Biennale Bambini," the first children's art education section at the Venice Biennale, before returning to establish a youth center inside the Haus der Kunst museum two years afterward.

The exhibition also features works by several other renowned artists who challenge conventional frameworks, such as Basim Magdy with "PINGPINPOOLPONG, or How I Learned to Laugh at Failure," which adapts a ping-pong table by combining it with pool and pinball obstacles, making winning nearly impossible. The game's nature is designed to encourage players to celebrate mistakes and disorder together through an instruction booklet developed alongside children.