Tell me about death

An Interactive Exhibition About the Before and After

Production: FEZ Wuhlheide Berlin and the Frankesche Stiftungen Halle, Patron: Friedrich Schorlemmer

One does not talk about death, and certainly not in front of children – the exhibition "Tell Me About Death" in the FEZ Wuhlheide breaks this taboo in an innovative way. By means of a passport, children and adolescents are sent on a journey to the afterlife and can familiarize themselves with different aspects and topics related to death and life in 13 walk-in room stagings. The individual stations, such as "Time Machine Walk-in Clockwork", "Becoming and Passing by", "Living Room of Memory", "Gallery of Ages" or "Laboratory of Immortality", make it possible to approach the complex theme in different ways: through play, through visual animation, through artistic activities and with the means of theater.

Fairy tales, myths and games are presented which helped people in all periods and everyday life to explain life and death. Topics such as age, time and transience are dealt with in a playful and vivid way. A "clock room" with an oversized pendulum clock and an hourglass that can be actively set in motion refers to the flow of life. The historical "living room of memories" offers space to explore past traces and thoughts. In the "Gallery of Ages" one can deal with the subject of aging or – if one feels like it – rather take a trip to the ancient human dreams of eternal youth in the "Laboratory of Immortality", where one can mix a special drink.

Foreign customs, ideas about death and the afterlife of different eras and cultures show differences and similarities in how people deal with death and how they imagine the afterlife. The visitors are encouraged to question their own ideas and "our" rituals of death by means of foreign cultures. They are allowed to ask questions that are otherwise rather not allowed, to reduce fear of contact and open themselves to unfamiliar trains of thought. The journey leads to the realm of the dead of the Egyptians, to Mexico and to Europe. Many things can be actively tried and touched. Together with their parents and grandparents, supervised by experienced teachers, the children experience that death is part of life and that humans, like the butterfly or the sunflower, grow, blossom and die as part of nature.

Project management: Claudia Lorenz

Idea and concept: Claudia Lorenz and Klemens Kühn

In cooperation with bbw Berufsvorbereitungs- und Ausbildungsgesellschaft mbH and Fossil Europe GmbH.

We would like to thank Ahorn-Grieneisen for their friendly support.