Coming up spring/summer 2014: Life before death (Noch Mal Leben), showing 26 portraits of death – exploring experiences, hope and fair of the ones that are dying.
Few experiences are likely to affect us as profoundly as an encounter with death. Yet most deaths occur almost covertly, at one remove from our everyday lives. Death and dying are arguably our last taboos – the topics our society finds most difficult. Opportunities to learn more about them are rare indeed. Experience the exhibition at Norsk Teknisk Museum in Oslo between March 4 and August 25.
The exhibition with portraits showing life before death in Oslo is in collaboration with Kreftforeningen / Norwegian Cancer Society
Photographer Walter Schels and journalist Beate Lakotta asked terminally ill people if they could accompany them during their last weeks and days. This exhibition explores the experiences, hopes and fears of the dying, and gives them one more opportunity to be heard. All of them agreed to be photographed shortly before and immediately after death. The majority of the 26 subjects portrayed spent their last days in hospices. All those who come to such places realize that their lives are drawing to a close. They know there is not much time left to settle their personal affairs. Yet hardly anyone here is devoid of hope: they hope for a few more days; they hope that a dignified death awaits them or that death will not be the end of everything. In preparing this exhibition, Walter Schels and Beate Lakotta spent over a year in hospices in Germany.
See also: Noch Mal Leben