Medusa, Valkhof Museum, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, 11 December 2026 – 9 May 2027
For more than three thousand years, Medusa has been imagined in many different ways: as a monster, a victim, a protector, a symbol of power and, more recently, a figure of resistance and change. Her story has never remained fixed. Each generation has returned to her, reshaping her image to reflect its own fears, beliefs and ideas about power. What happens when we look at Medusa again, not simply as a monster to fear, but as a woman whose story deserves to be reclaimed?
Medusa at Valkhof Museum in Nijmegen brings together archaeology, ancient and contemporary art, fashion, design, film and popular culture to explore how the image of Medusa has evolved across time. Through international loans and new work by contemporary artists, the exhibition examines how her changing representations continue to shape ideas about power, beauty, gender, violence and our relationship with nature.
Among the works on view is Koen Vanmechelen’s Crying Medusa, a black marble sculpture in which taxidermy chicken heads replace some of Medusa’s familiar snakes. This transformation shifts the meaning of a figure long associated with danger and death. In Vanmechelen’s hands, Medusa becomes a hybrid being, caught between opposing forces: destruction and creation, fear and healing, life and death.
In Greek mythology, Medusa’s gaze could turn people to stone, while the blood of her severed head was said to hold the power both to kill and to restore life. Vanmechelen draws on this duality. Snake venom can be deadly, yet in carefully controlled doses it can also have medicinal uses. The chicken heads introduce another connection: the egg, an ancient symbol of life and potential, is also used in the production of certain vaccines and medicines. What appears threatening can carry the possibility of healing. What seems to signal an ending can also hold the beginning of something new.
The transformation from snakes to chickens also evokes evolution. Reptiles and birds may seem worlds apart, yet they are connected through the long history of life. Vanmechelen brings these forms together to challenge the boundaries we draw between species, between nature and culture, and between what we consider familiar and what we perceive as other. In Crying Medusa, myth becomes a meeting point between biology, science and the human imagination.
But this transformation is also about Medusa herself. Across history, her image has often been shaped by the gaze of others: feared, condemned and turned into a symbol of danger. Seen through a contemporary lens, she can also represent a woman reclaiming her own story, asserting her right to exist on her own terms and refusing to be defined by the role imposed on her. Her power lies not only in her ability to frighten, but in her capacity to change meaning. She becomes a figure of resistance, transformation and self-determination.
Nature, too, is never simply one thing. The same substance can harm or heal; one form of life can give rise to another. Vanmechelen’s work draws attention to these contradictions, showing how life moves through exchange, adaptation and transformation. The animals in his sculptures are more than symbols. They invite us to reconsider our place within the natural world and the relationships that connect all living things.
Within the wider story of the Valkhof exhibition, Crying Medusa becomes part of a continuing history of reinterpretation. A figure once defined by fear is given room to speak differently. Her story opens up questions about who has the power to define us, how identities change and how new possibilities can emerge from what we inherit.
Medusa is the first major international exhibition at Valkhof Museum following its reopening. Spanning more than 3,000 years of art and cultural history, it explores not only how Medusa has been represented, but why her story continues to matter. She remains a figure of contradictions: vulnerable and powerful, destructive and protective, mortal and regenerative. Perhaps her lasting force lies precisely in this complexity, and in her refusal to remain just one thing.
EXHIBITION FACTS
Valkhof Museum
Kelfkensbos 59
6511 TB Nijmegen, The Netherlands
11 December 2026 – 9 May 2027
Crying Medusa © Koen Vanmechelen
Schildknop van brons uit de Romeinse tijd, met Medusakop, 100-300 n.Chr.
Vaas in de vorm van een gorgon, Antikenmuseum Basel
Medusa with the Head of Perseus © Luciano Garbati, 2008