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A fire extinguisher may well be the most inconspicuous object in Maurizio Cattelan’s new exhibition in Berlin. Yet “Dust,” installed at the entrance to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s modernist glass hall, is also the most significant work in the show. Inside the fire extinguisher are the ashes of a friend of the artist, Hypebeast reports.

It is only the first work visitors encounter in “Night,” an exhibition currently on view at the Neue Nationalgalerie. For decades, Cattelan has maintained his reputation as the enfant terrible of conceptual art. His provocative works encourage viewers to reconsider their relationship with power, value and mortality, while exposing the vulnerabilities of human nature.

For his first major museum exhibition in Germany, the Italian artist moves away from the ironic works that made him famous — including the banana duct-taped to a wall and the golden toilet, “America.” Instead, Cattelan presents new works created specifically for the exhibition alongside pieces spanning the past 30 years, increasingly marked by anxiety and the darker side of human existence.

To enter the exhibition, visitors must first pass through “Purgatory” — a scaled-down replica of the Brandenburg Gate. The installation draws attention to the ambiguity and divisions that have shaped the history of this site, once considered a no-man’s land.

At the center of the space stands “Him,” Cattelan’s famous miniature figure of Hitler kneeling in prayer. Opposite him is “Dawn,” a crucified woman suspended inside a shipping crate.

On elevated platforms, thousands of taxidermied pigeons in “People” silently stare down at visitors passing below. Other animals throughout the exhibition also become symbols of exhaustion and labor. In “Novecento,” a dead horse hangs suspended in midair, while in “Pentecost,” a donkey lifted off the ground struggles to bear the weight of an overloaded cart.

“Night is not simply the absence of light. It is a state. The exhibition is not about darkness. It is about the loss of certainty,” Cattelan wrote in a press release.

And although the space initially appears to be dominated by defeat and despair, on the other side there is salvation, reflection and imagination. Ultimately, the exhibition space was conceived as a “modern church” — a decision that echoes both Mies van der Rohe’s architecture and Cattelan’s own complicated relationship with Catholicism.

“Night,” too, is temporary,” the artist continued. “It always contains the possibility of morning, even if you cannot see it yet.”

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