Ulrich Seidl

Über das Leben, die Liebe und den Tod

19 September 2026 — 3 January 2027

still from Paradies: Liebe (Ulrich Seidl, AT/DE/FR 2012)

still Paradies: Liebe (Ulrich Seidl, AT/DE/FR 2012) © Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion

In the exhibition Über das Leben, die Liebe und den Tod (On Life, Love and Death), Seidl’s ongoing exploration of the human condition takes centre stage. He has an interest in the everyday and, in particular, those who fall outside the bounds of daily order. Seidl’s work is often described as unsettling because it confronts viewers with their own preconceptions about how people live, what they think, how they furnish their homes, how they entertain themselves, and how they seek a sense of security, each in their own way.

Eye Filmmuseum presents Ulrich Seidl – Über das Leben, die Liebe und den Tod, the first exhibition in the Netherlands about the Austrian filmmaker, photographer and theatre-maker. Featuring a wealth of early, little-known and newly commissioned (film) works, the exhibition confronts visitors with the lives of a number of seemingly ordinary individuals, people who try to, in their own ways, make something of life in a late-capitalist society in which meaning has been replaced by consumerism.

still Im Keller (Ulrich Seidl, AT 2014) © Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion

“What I try to do is to look behind the beautified surface and to go into a private space, and that’s often uncomfortable and may look different than what people would like it to look like.”

Ulrich Seidl

still Safari (Ulrich Seidl, AT 2016) © Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion

At the intersection of documentary and fiction

Another way in which Seidl achieves a degree of disorientation is by positioning his work at the intersection of documentary and fiction. Research into real people, places and situations forms the basis of his work, which he then interweaves with fictional elements and characters. Non-professional actors play themselves in their own environments, while professional actors are invited to enter this context and improvise.

still from Rimini (Ulrich Seidl, AT 2022)

still Rimini (Ulrich Seidl, AT 2022) © Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion

still from Die letzten Männer (Ulrich Seidl, AT 1994)

still Die letzten Männer (Ulrich Seidl, AT 1994) © Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion

still Im Keller (Ulrich Seidl, AT 2014) © Ulrich Seidl Filmproduktion

Film, Talks & Events

The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive film programme, including several 35mm titles from the Eye collection. A series of Eye on Art specials further explores themes from Seidl’s work and examines the ways in which his oeuvre resonates in the work of other contemporary makers.

About Ulrich Seidl

Ulrich Seidl (Vienna, 1952) has directed around twenty feature-length and short films. In the 1990s, he won awards for his documentaries Good News (1990), Mit Verlust ist zu rechnen (Losses to Be Expected, 1992), Tierische Liebe (Animal Love, 1995) and Models (1998). In 2001, his first ‘fiction film’, Hundstage (Dog Days), received an award at the Venice Film Festival. Almost all of his subsequent films premiered at major film festivals, including Import Export (2007) and Paradise: Liebe (Paradies: Love, 2012) in Cannes. His most recent work, the two-part Böse Spiele – Rimini Sparta (Wicked Games – Rimini Sparta, 2023), was screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Seidl has also directed theatre productions such as Vater Unser (2004, Volksbühne Berlin) and Böse Buben / Fiese Männer (2011, Wiener Festwochen) and regularly presents his photographic work.