“I've never tried that before, so I'm completely sure I can do it,” explains Pippi Longstocking. We would like our children to have such a level of self-assurance, but do they currently have the chance to act out unchecked? Today's overprotection and the advancing digitization, which restricts children's urge to move and discover, raise doubts. Children survive the most absurd educational concepts, as well as war, social misery, neglect or abuse, but at what price?

170 artists illustrate how cocky, curious, dreamy or rebellious children are, and show that they need space for dreaming and boredom, the basic prerequisites for creativity. In nine chapters, the book shows positions from 1900 to today that are critical, realistically-differentiated, but also document childish happiness and frustration with a lot of irony and humor. They make us realize that it is up to us to enable our children to have a childhood that is worth remembering.

The publication with personal contributions from international experts accompanies the exhibition in the Lentos Art Museum Linz. In addition to numerous, never-before-seen works from artist studios and from the collection of the Lentos Art Museum, a total of 200 works, including loans from national and international museums, galleries and private ownership, are shown.

With Iris Andraschek, Stephan Balkenhol, Tina Barney, Werner Berg, Thomas Billhardt, Julie Blackmon, Christian Boltanski, Sevda Chkoutova, Lovis Corinth, Albin Egger-Lienz, VALIE EXPORT, Jorge Fuembuena, Helene Funke, Franz Gertsch, Maria Hahnenkamp, Gottfried Helnwein, Frans Hofmeester, Martin Honert, Ursula Hübner, Mary Kelly, Oskar Kokoschka, Anton Kolig, Alain Laboile, Marie Jo Lafontaine, Maria Lassnig, Ulrike Lienbacher, Sally Mann, Henri Matisse, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Alois Mosbacher, Muntean/Rosenblum, Andjé Pietrzyk, Anton Romako, Elisabeth von Samsonow, Egon Schiele, Markus Schinwald, Sean Scully, Kiki Smith, Kerry Tribe, Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca, Marijke van Warmerdam, Gillian Wearing, Nives Widauer, Yantong Zhu.