The last exhibition, which dealt comprehensively with the question »What is modern sculpture?«, took place in 1986 at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris under the title »Qu'est-ce que la sculpture moderne?«. The exhibition »Negative Space« at ZKM | Karlsruhe picks up the spear where the Centre Pompidou dropped it. 
Since antiquity, the history of Western sculpture has been closely linked to the idea of the body. Whether carved, modeled or cast, statues have been designed for centuries as solid monoliths – as substantial and self-contained entities, as more or less powerful and weighty positive formations in space.