The exhibition project PARADISE LOST reflects the relationship to experience as a state of transformation through the works of four generations of artists. In their work, three male and one female painter address primarily how the perception of time changes in relation to objecthood and figuration. What plays a significant role here is the period of childhood, in which the foundations of the adult personality are formed. Something is irretrievably lost and sacrificed so that something else can emerge and continue to develop. Childhood is not only memories, but also the first social games, the first uncontrollable emotions and the different environments in which the child grows up and which stimulate them. The relationship to reality changes over time. The familiarity of the world with its certain illusions of security becomes cracked later in life. The reverse side of knowledge returns man to a different, alienated world, which is no longer as easy to navigate as it once was. All the more so does this ‘new’ world mirror the nature and character of the individual, whose roots can be traced back to childhood. The light-heartedness of games and the casual childlike verification of reality are transformed into a qualitatively different existence of varying intensity, sometimes even magically spectral. Life becomes denser, combing the undercurrents of doubt and melancholy. These then inscribe themselves in a differently set perception. The scepticism present in the works is occasionally intersected by irony, a sense of absurdity or dark humour.