Watch that mouth: An art exhibition goes oral

Body language plays a key role in the sculptures of American artist Rona Pondick. She mixes human body parts with animal shapes in many of her works, often creating sphinx-like creatures. She humorously called her 500 apple-sized pink balls "Little Bathers."

A giant head lying in a body of water is at the heart of this copperplate engraving created by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Its mouth is opened, and its tongue hangs out. Several strange figures move through the picture. The painting is meant to show the temptation of Saint Anthony; it seems to portray a world of sin, with the mouth as the gateway to hell.

In Roman mythology, Saturn is the god of agriculture. Legend has it that he ate his offspring until he was overthrown by his sixth child. The Austrian artist Alfred Kubin was inspired by this legend, and extended its meaning to depict the horrors of war: the mouth is shown as a weapon of murder that indiscriminately devours its victims.

Polish artist Natalia LL works while mixing different genres such as photography, drawing and video art. Since the early 1970s, she has been a member of the feminist art movement. In "Consumer Art," she shows close-ups of women eating phallic foods like bananas, melons or a sausage. This is her way of criticizing the sexist portrayal of women in advertising

Nobuyoshi Araki has long been a cult figure in his native Japan, where he is known mainly for his nude photography. In the series "Tokyo Nouvelle" he casts a spotlight on the ugly depths of the capital, showing raunchy nudes of girls and women. In his work, the open mouth represents an erotic vow. Will it be kept or broken?

Kisses were a recurrent theme in Pablo Picasso’s work. In this drawing of an intimate kiss, the viewer becomes the voyeur of a scene between two lovers. It is featured in one of twelve segments of the exhibition dedicated to the mouth in Wolfsburg called "Kiss and Vampirism." Other sections are equally thought-provoking, such as "Toothache and Commercialism."