Pre-opening of exhibition for public: Fool Disclosure by Pat Oleszko & The Manufacturing of Spirits and Other Mechanical Wonders by Mette Sterre

On November 21, 2026, Museum Cobra opens Pat Oleszko: Fool Disclosure—the first solo exhibition in Europe by American artist Pat Oleszko. The exhibition brings together sculpture, performance, costume, film, and political commentary in an exuberant world where humor and imagination undermine all forms of authority.

At the same time, The Manufacturing of Spirits and Other Mechanical Wonders, a solo exhibition by Mette Sterre, opens. Sterre employs material transformation to challenge notions of the human body.

With this project, Museum Cobra brings together two artists who, despite a generational difference of more than thirty years, share a striking artistic kinship. Their work explores the body, identity, social structures, and imagination, using humor and absurdity as powerful tools for reflection and change.

The opening will be a spectacular evening featuring performance, video art, music, and sculptural costumes. Visitors will also get a first glimpse of Club Cobra, Museum Cobra’s new space for performance, encounter, and artistic experimentation. You’re welcome to join us!

About the Artists

Pat Oleszko (1949, Detroit), who was recently honored with the Bucksbaum Award at the 2026 Whitney Biennial, is one of the most distinctive voices in international performance art. Since the 1970s, she has developed a multidisciplinary practice in which costume, sculpture, performance, satire, and activism converge. Through extravagant characters, monumental inflatable sculptures, and a keen sense of language and humor, she comments on gender inequality, patriarchal power structures, war, and social justice. The exhibition is presented in collaboration with SculptureCenter New York.

Mette Sterre (1983) creates sculptural costumes, installations, performances, and films featuring figures that exist somewhere between human, animal, monster, and machine. Organic and artificial forms merge, transforming the body into something strange and unexpected. With humor and imagination, Sterre invites visitors to experience the world from a different perspective.