Moesgaard Museum puts on a film exhibition about basic human conditions

Moesgaard Museum's major special exhibition in 2017 is an exhibition without objects. The Journey is a cinematic production directed by Christoffer Boe, produced by Zentropa and designed by Moesgaard Museum.

In 2017, Moesgaard Museum, in cooperation with European Capital of Culture Aarhus 2017 and Filmby Aarhus, will be presenting an extraordinary special exhibition. This exhibition, The Journey, is an international cinematic exhibition about basic human conditions, written and directed by film director, Christoffer Boe, and produced by Zentropa Films. The exhibition, which opens on April 25, is about seven human conditions: birth, death, love, faith, fear, loss and rationality.

The concept and themes of the film exhibition have been defined by Jan Skamby Madsen, former Director of Moesgaard Museum, in collaboration with the Head of Filmby Aarhus, Carsten Holst, the former bishop of Aarhus, Kjeld Holm, and film director Christoffer Boe. With the exhibition, Moesgaard Museum aims to bring into focus that which all humans have in common and the conditions everyone is subject to in a time where a lot of people are preoccupied with differences and the unfamiliar.

"Ever since I saw Ingmar Bergman's film, 'The Seventh Seal', as a young man, I have had a great desire to design an exhibition about basic human conditions. In the film, set in 13th century Sweden, ravaged by the plague, a homecoming knight plays chess with Death on a beach. These beautiful and powerful images, present one of the basic conditions of life – death – and the film made a huge impression on me. Moesgaard Museum is a cultural history museum, and we work in the fields of Archaeology and Ethnography. Virtually all the artifacts and societies we are dealing with are associated with some of the fundamentals of being human: basic conditions that are common to all people throughout antiquity and up to the present day, and that are found everywhere on earth at all times. In the museum's exhibitions we attach great importance to presenting all three generations, focusing on empathy for and identification with people past and present. If we can boil down and communicate basic human conditions that have applied to all people regardless of climate, nature, religion, etc., we will have come to the core of what it means to be a human being across time and space. And that is the idea behind the new exhibition", explains Jan Skamby Madsen.

The Journey will lead visitors into a physical landscape in which a visual narrative filmed on the seven continents tells the story of the human journey extended between the two extremes: birth and death. From a baby's first breath in Denmark, we are led on to love in Africa, faith in South America, fear in Oceania, loss in North America and rationality at the South Pole to see the last breath taken in Asia, before the body is cremated.

With this exhibition, Moesgaard Museum wants to challenge and rethink the exhibition concept in yet another new direction, where the visitor becomes one with a cinematic, staged universe.

The Journey is part of the European Capital of Culture Aarhus 2017 programme, and the Capital of Culture has supported the exhibition project.

"The human condition is something we all share: something we all have to confront, experience, live through. Human life is diverse, and in terms of European Capital of Culture Aarhus 2017, diversity is one of the focal points of the programme we are presenting throughout the coming year. We are very pleased and indeed privileged to help present an exhibition such as The Journey, which both in its choice of theme and in its execution, is completely in line with the 'Rethink' theme of our Capital of Culture Year. Here you have two very robust partners working together on a major new venture. Daring to challenge our preconceived notions of how human life is lived, and how an exhibition ought to be designed and experienced, is a brave thing to do, and it shows just the kind of mettle we want to promote in our Capital of Culture year. I am sure that through this exhibition we are going to experience something unique and yet at the same time familiar – precisely as human life in fact shapes itself on the journey from birth to death", says Rebecca Matthews.

Besides European Capital of Culture Aarhus 2017, the Herman Salling Foundation and the Krogager Foundation have supported the project, which is being realised in cooperation with Filmby Aarhus.

"In recent years, Filmby Aarhus has clearly demonstrated the added value that companies in the digital visual media industry can contribute to other sectors of society, including, for example, a museum like Moesgaard. Many sections of the new Moesgaard are already benefiting from the digital and cinematic skills found in the visual media companies in and around Filmby Aarhus. The new special exhibition, The Journey, is the result of even closer digital collaboration, reinforcing the message that digital visual media companies have much to offer in many other contexts than just the traditional experiences we know from cinema, TV or a smartphone. I am convinced that this exhibition offers a fair model of the museum space experience of the future", comments Carsten Holst of Filmby Aarhus. 

The exhibition, The Journey, is more than a movie and more than an exhibition. It is a spatial, perceptual and visual experience that drills deep into the question of what common space we as humans share, with a view to identifying the basic conditions of being human.

The special exhibition, The Journey, opens to the public on April 25 at Moesgaard Museum.