Steven Spielberg
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science-fiction film in which director Steven Spielberg combines elements of science fiction and fairy tale. Young Elliot lives with his dysfunctional family in a Los Angeles suburb. Amid loneliness, confusion, and family tensions, he encounters the gentle alien E.T. after his UFO crashes in a nearby forrest.

The film tells a universal story about friendship, belonging, and the formation of a child’s identity. Upon its release, E.T. immediately became the highest-grossing film of all time, a title it held until the release of Jurassic Park in 1993.

E.T. has accompanied Katherine Bernhardt ever since she saw the film eighteen times in the cinema as a child. During her time at art school, E.T. was the first pop-culture character to enter her work, and the alien has remained a recurring motif throughout her practice ever since. In the exhibition Neonfarbblendluminanzwuchtgemaeldenetzhautkollisionsgefahr, E.T. likewise appears in several works.