Sebastian Nowak, the show’s curator, told Poland's PAP news agency that the goal is to “learn to look at death as something natural and to talk about it in a way that is easy to grasp.”
The title references the late-medieval and early-modern artistic motif known as the “dance of death” or danse macabre, a reminder that all people are equal in the face of mortality, regardless of relative wealth or social standing.
“When death comes, we must give up what we hold most precious—our own life. It does not matter whether we have millions in the bank or our last few coins,” Nowak said.
He added that people often avoid or fear conversations about death. “Through the exhibition we want to convey that death is nothing terrible; it is the natural course of life," he said.
Covering works and practices from the 17th to the 19th centuries, the exhibition draws on art history, ethnography and physical anthropology.
Photos: PAP/Tomasz Wojtasik
The curator explained that the exhibition sets side by side modest early-modern ceremonies for the poor and lavish “theatres of death” prepared for the wealthy. It also displays archaeological finds from the Kalisz area and from other, more distant regions of Poland – objects that had accompanied the dead on their final journey.
Further, the show presents customs once used to “domesticate” death within families and communities.
One example, Nowak noted, was removing the pillow from under a dying person’s head; people believed that dying on feathers could bring misfortune to the household.
The District Museum of the Kalisz Region says the display is designed to make difficult themes accessible to a broad audience while placing them in their historical and cultural context.
With dry humor, the organizers said "people were dying to get in," commenting on the long queues on the opening day.
The exhibition is on until the end of February.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP