8. March 2014 – 4. May 2014
Why does Jonathan Franzen enter cemeteries with binoculars? Why does Jussi Adler-Olsen hug his parents' gravestone? And how come Margaret Atwood wants to be frozen after her death?
It all began by chance. Tobias Wenzel had an appointment to talk to the Icelandic writer Sjón in a café on Berlin's Chausseestraße. But the noise of the espresso machine made a pleasant radio interview impossible. The journalist and author switched to the nearest quiet place: the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof.
It turned out to be a particularly pleasant conversation. Both were sure that this had something to do with the place. So why not deliberately interview writers in cemeteries, not just any cemetery, but those that are of special importance to them? Tobias Wenzel has travelled around the world and has 72 writers to portray in cemeteries of their choice. The Museum for Sepulchral Culture in Kassel presents 28 of these cemetery walks in an audiovisual exhibition: large-format photographs and haunting conversations about life and death, love and loss.
What did Thomas Hürlimann promise his dying brother? Why does Cornelia Funke feel like on holiday at the cemetery? And why does Benoîte Groult want to be eaten by fish?
Represented in the exhibition:
Jonathan Franzen, Jussi Adler-Olsen, Benoîte Groult, Simon Beckett, T. C. Boyle, Siri Hustvedt, Margaret Atwood, Cees Nooteboom, Cornelia Funke, Donna Leon, Annie Proulx, Thomas Hürlimann
An exhibition, book and radio project
Media partner: Deutschlandradio Kultur
Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media | Language and Literature
Tobias Wenzel studied Romance languages and literature and philosophy and has been working as a freelance journalist and literary critic for public radio stations since 2001. In 2008 he published the volume Schriftsteller im Gespräch and in 2013 the volume of the same name for the exhibition Solange ich lebe, kriegt mich der Tod nicht. Friedhofsgänge mit Schriftstellern.
A joint exhibition of the Museum for Sepulchral Culture and the Kunsthalle Rostock.
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Friedhof und Denkmal e.V.
Zentralinstitut für Sepulkralkultur
Museum für Sepulkralkultur
Weinbergstraße 25–27
D-34117 Kassel | Germany
Tel. +49 (0)561 918 93-0
info@sepulkralmuseum.de