The exhibition takes visitors back to the heyday of the cult of genius and the early days of the modern celebrity cult.

The exhibition invites visitors to recognize historical patterns of veneration—and to ask why the cult of genius, the star system, and the personalization of public figures continue to shape our culture to this day.

The list of past and present figures honored during this period is a long one: Shakespeare, Dürer, Frederick the Great, Napoleon, Goethe, Schiller, Queen Luise, Bismarck, Beethoven, Humboldt, Paganini, Liszt, Schumann, Wagner …

Times of crisis, social change, and discontent fueled a longing for strong leaders, saviors, and role models. Doubts about religion and the church led to the emergence of “substitute saints” from secular life.

BOROS has developed a contemporary reinterpretation of the historical copperplate engraving as a consistent key visual. Stripped of the formal trappings of the past, the relationship between the admirer and the admired is the core concept of the communication strategy. This ensures that historical phenomena resonate today and are understood as relevant to the present.