VIENNA.- Life, transience, death – for each and every one of us they are inevitable elements of human existence but everyone faces them in his or her own way. In everyday life dying and death are usually blocked out.

The project "Celebrate Life!” invited prominent national and international representatives of the cultural and art scene to instigate a dialogue: what remains of us when we die? What is impotent when faced with the fact that life is but transient, what traces do we leave behind? How do I want to die?

Barbara Coudenhove-Kalergi, Christiane Hörbiger, Michael Landau, Karl Markovics, Robert Menasse, Cornelius Obonya, Arnulf Rainer, Barbara Stöckl and Josef Zotter have all agreed to have a mask taken of their face, and the internationally renowned artists Kader Attia, Daniel Knorr, Erik van Lieshout, Teresa Margolles, Arnulf Rainer, Hans Schabus, Hubert Scheibl, Deborah Sengl, Daniel Spoerri and Nives Widauer have agreed to rework these masks. All participants have focused on death in their previous work.

“All the artists participating in this exhibition explicitly explore in their works mortality and how their fellow human beings live on after death. This is not an egocentric exploration but an analysis of society and its relationship with subjects connected with transience, death and remembrance. Some of these explorations focus on the transiency of our body’s raw material, for example Teresa Margolles’ reworking of the life mask of Barbara Coudenhove-Kalergi, whose face is literally submerged in a heavy material that will stand the test of time. In her life mask of Christiane Hörbiger, however, Deborah Sengl runs a summary of the actress’ real or assumed life past her eyes. And Hans Schabus puts Robert Menasse in the unusual position of becoming an inexhaustible supplier of ideas, freed from all inherent necessity and expectantly at the mercy of Nature” said Cathérine Hug, the curator of the exhibition.

In collaboration with Caritas, the Kunsthistorisches Museum presents the results of these interventions in a special exhibition. „The sumptuous galleries of the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities, especially those showcasing artefacts connected with ancient funerary cults and portraiture, offer a stimulating setting and emphasise the curatorial idea behind this show, which focuses on the long tradition of artists reflecting on life and death. The colours of memento mori have always been an integral part of the palette of artistic inspiration” said Director-General Sabine Haag.

The idea or producing life masks of living celebrities was proposed by the Caritas of the Diocese of Vienna in order to call attention to the quiet but vital work of their Mobile Hospice, embraced and carried out day in, day out by dedicated Caritas staff members and countless volunteers. The project hopes to make us all reflect on life, on dying and on death.

“Most people, including myself, find it difficult to contemplate their own death or the death of those dear to them. In the end, however, this internal dialogue is life affirming. Because we are confronted with the question whether the life we live now is the life we want to have lived when our life comes to an end. I am convinced that the culture of life must include a culture of solidarity with the dying. I would like to thank everyone who supported and made possible this exhibition of life masks - and for helping us to showcase the vital work of the Caritas Mobile Hospice. A quarter-century of Mobile Hospice has meant nothing less than a quarter-century of the affirmation of life and of dying in dignity. It means accompanying, rather than abandoning, someone at the end of his or her life, to accept contradictions and to be close to someone at the very point in his or her life that many of us fear as the end. Because every dying person is a living person. Until the very end”, said Michael Landau, the president of Caritas.

Robert Menasse proposed this artistic project, which was realized by the curators of the exhibition, Cathérine Hug (Kunsthaus Zürich) in collaboration with Manuela Laubenberger (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities).