Totentanz

About

Kerstin Drechsel, Peter Duka, Heinz Emigholz, Ueli Etter, Gerhard Faulhaber, Margarete Hahner, Theresa Lükenwerk, Erik Steinbrecher, SUSI POP.

One of the most famous dance dances was in Basel in 1440, at a time when the plague struck Europe every ten to twenty years, and large parts of the population were killed. As “Memento Mori - Remembrance of Death”, the partly monumental murals were intended as a reminder to live a godly life. This warning was addressed to all people, regardless of status, age and gender. The Pope, the emperor and the empress, the duke and the duchess, the canon and the abbess, the young man and the virgin, the painter and (one is amazed) the dance dance with death.

That a dangerous virus can still haunt everyone today, may the Prime Minister, the football fan and party goers be right, would it not be the instrument of statistics that teaches us: no trace of equality.

And misfortune does not come from nowhere either: let's ask monkey, pig and bat.

As early as 1805, the Basel dance of death had to give way to an expansion of the street. Only a few remnants and documentation have been preserved. Gerhard Faulhaber came across this when he lived in Basel in the 1960s to study at the arts and crafts school. The topic has not let go of him since then, which ultimately led to this exhibition.