Reflecting on the end of ageing in art and science
Published: Thursday, May 2nd 2024, 09:41
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With his scenic installation "The End of Aging", Michael Schindhelm explores questions about eternal life in the exhibition space of the Basel H. Geiger Cultural Foundation. The documentary filmmaker and author builds a bridge between art and science.
A monstrous poisonous green turtle welcomes visitors in the entrance area of the exhibition rooms. It is inscribed with the name Adwaita and the dates of its life from 1750 to 22.03.2006.
The turtle actually existed, the size is true to scale, the age is about right, the color is of course fictitious, Schindhelm told the Keystone-SDA news agency. He conceived the exhibition.
The turtle is a symbolic eye-catcher for a scenic installation parcours of an ostensibly dystopian nature. Visitors move through a hospital that was abandoned years ago and shows clear signs of decay. In the abandoned pathology and operating theaters, sprayers have left their slogans and slogans of the day such as: "Why live longer when the planet is dying".
A civilization without ageing
In a control room, various people talk on video screens about facets of a perhaps no longer quite so fictitious civilization in which ageing has been greatly slowed down or even abolished. And in another room, the story of a woman can be followed, who visits the stations of her life and death as a kind of revenant.
The quantum chemist Michael Schindhelm, who was director of Theater Basel from 1996 to 2006 and has since worked as an author and filmmaker, does not want to take the side of either the believers in progress or the critics with this installation. Both sides are represented, but not in messages with a moralizing finger, as he said.
From artistic fiction, the trail finally leads into a recovery room where visitors are confronted with real science. From hospital beds, visitors can follow the explanations of renowned scientists on the subject of ageing. These include the head of the Basel Biozentrum, Alex Schier, and the Indian Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, Venki Ramakrishan.
The installation "The End of Aging" at the Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger can be seen until July 21. This will be followed by the second chapter of the exhibition, "Roots", under the generic title "Bids of Survival".
©Keystone/SDA
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