Dunant Museum in Heiden AR renovated for 2.4 million francs
Published: Friday, Jul 26th 2024, 09:10
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The Henry Dunant Museum in Heiden has been renovated at a cost of 2.4 million Swiss francs. The completely redesigned exhibition on the life of the initiator of the Red Cross and winner of the first Nobel Peace Prize is "fatally gaining in importance in the shadow of the current world situation", according to a statement from the museum.
Failed as a businessman, celebrated as a humanist: Henry Dunant spent the last 18 years of his life until 1910 as a pensioner in the former district hospital in Heiden.
On August 10 - three years after its temporary closure - a completely revamped exhibition on the life of the visionary who formulated rules to mitigate the consequences of war will open on the first floor of this property.
Exhibition also sheds light on the darker side
Visitors approach Dunant in Heiden from different perspectives. The museum not only shows the winner of the first Nobel Peace Prize, co-founder of today's International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and pioneer of the Geneva Conventions.
The exhibition "Henry is back!" also sheds light on Dunant's colonial activities in Algeria, settlement plans for Palestine and his failed career as a Geneva businessman, which led him to Heiden, impoverished and outcast.
In the end, he rarely left his rented room there. He rarely received visitors, but wrote countless letters. Nevertheless, he also left his mark on the village in Appenzell Ausserrhoden. In one of the four themed rooms, actors perform life-size texts on screen that contemporary witnesses wrote about their personal encounters with Henry Dunant in Heiden.
Anything but straightforward
"Henry Dunant's life is characterized by aberrations, ruptures and crises; his career was anything but straightforward," Nadine Schneider told the Keystone-SDA news agency. Together with Kaba Rössler, she designed a multimedia and expandable exhibition world with depth.
The two directors of the museum, which is supported by the Red Cross of Appenzell, researched Dunant's life and also sought funding for a contemporary exhibition. The museum was also the first in Europe to develop an area that can be visited around the clock through self-check-in.
©Keystone/SDA
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