Agenda

Since 2004 this exhibition provides an overview of Basel Fasnacht (carnival) in historic and atmospheric rooms: Costumes, masks, musical instruments, historical documents and a reproduction of a typical “carnival”. Basel Fasnacht (carnival) is a large festival of sounds and dreams, of colour and fantasy, but also of criticism and mockery. It has been evolving over the last 100 years. Since then, and now, this carnival has inspired the population and artists of this city into active participation, not only during carnival time but also all year round.

Inspired by Niklaus Manuel’s (1484-1530) work, the Bernese artists Jared Muralt (1982) and Balts Nill (1953) have created a re-interpretation of the Bernese Dance of Death and published it in an intricate concertina-folded Dance of Death. The exhibition Bernese Dance of Death displays the story of the creation of the  Dance of Death now and then and how discussions about death are as relevant today as they were 500 years ago.

Manuel was born in Germany (he called himself Niklaus Manuel Deutsch), but lived in Bern, where he married into a powerful family in 1509. Manuel had a typical renaissance career: painter, diplomat, soldier, politician, writer, poet and became a devoted protestant. Printing, the discovery of America and the Indies, the Renaissance and the Reformation shaped this time of upheaval at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries. The exhibition Mercenary, Iconoclast and Dancer of Death (Söldner, Bilderstürmer und Tötentänzer) in the same museum follows the life of Niklaus Manuel from mercenary to statesman, from artist to iconoclast.

 

In a grand-scale presentation, the Kunstmuseum Bern is investigating the collection policy of the Princes of Liechtenstein over many centuries. The exhibition opens up insights into an exceptional and illustrious world that has no equal in Switzerland, because the country has no   equivalent of a “royal collection”. Rather the nation’s cultural assets are distributed among various cantons and institutions, each pursuing its individual strategies of collecting. The Princely Collections comprise masterpieces of European art of exceptional quality spanning five centuries, and still today these holdings are being constantly augmented with new acquisitions.