Fashion and Music in the Twenties


Exhibition fashion and Musiv in the Twenties. Photo: www.hmb.ch

The Roaring Twenties (around 1920-1930) were in many respects a fascinating decade. This was a time of radically new styles in both fashion and music, and with the privations of the First World War still fresh in their minds, people were eager to travel, play sports and generally have fun. Dances with new rhythms like the Tango, Charleston and Foxtrot quickly became all the rage, while the saxophone, banjo and trumpet heralded the age of the dance band and jazz. Lyrics, moreover, could now be witty, cheeky or just plain silly. Nor did music have to be live. After all, this was also the age of the gramophone, shellac records and new radio stations, thanks to which music could be heard at almost any time of day.

Meanwhile, fashion designers were busy lending women a new look with dresses that were shorter than ever before and loose-fitting enough to show off the wearer’s suppleness and spontaneity. The show presents clothes for a wide range of occasions from travel, leisure and everyday wear to festive dos such as afternoon tea, cocktail parties and an evening at the dance hall. Add to these the many accessories, fashion plates, gramophones, sheet music, and musical instruments from the museum’s own collection and it is impossible not to be captivated by the upbeat mood of a period of extremes with its own distinctive buzz.

With its array of dresses, accessories, gramophones, sheet music and musical instruments from the museum’s own collection, the show provides an enthralling insight into a period of extremes.

Erasmus and the Power of the Word


Presentation of the exhibition. Photo: Historisches Museum Basel

Basel played a key role in the life of Erasmus of Rotterdam. The great Humanist spent more than ten years of his life there, and when he died there in 1536 he was laid to rest in Basel Cathedral. The HMB has an unparalleled collection of Erasmus’s personal effects, which this exhibition places in a larger context. The exhibition takes visitors to all the most important places where he lived and worked, acquainting them with his friends, fellow scholars and ideas along the way. Targeted interventions in the permanent exhibition flanked by additional exhibits give rise to what is essentially a tour of the life and works of Erasmus of Rotterdam.

Celts as European Power


Catalogue Kunst der Kelten. Photograph: Historisches Museum Bern

The exhibition in the new extension of the Historisches Museum in Bern is showing an exquisite selection of some 450 Celtic art treasures from all over Europe in an area covering 1200 sq. m. Magnificent jewellery and richly decorated utilitarian objects made from bronze, iron, silver and gold, precious grave goods and cult objects with complex patterns or representations of fantastic beings testify to the masterly artistic creation achieved by the Celts. The exhibition offers the chance to see for the first time some recently discovered and spectacular new finds from France that have not yet been displayed to the public. As a particular highlight it is also showing for the first time outside Germany the treasure from the burial chamber of the famous Celtic chieftain at Hochdorf. The most up-to-date exhibition techniques help to elucidate the structure of the complex and often puzzling ornamental schemes of the artefacts. The development of motifs and style is explained in dialogue with the testimonies of classical antiquity.