Post Mortem

In modern societies death has become very visible and invisble at the same time. We are used to watch images of death in movies and the daily news about war, accidents and natural desaster. But on the other side the daily natural death has been completely vanished from the public view. It almost has become a taboo that people do not talk and know about. Today more people die in hospitals than in their own home – like it was a century ago, where it was the relatives task to take care of the dead body. But nowadays professionals are called who remove the body from visibilty. But before finally vanishing, the deceased person’s corpse is administered, scrutinized, investigated, processed by various institutions and thus once again confronted with its former life. like a dying pendulum, the corpse oscillates between life (e.g. by being dressed in the deceased’s personal clothes) and complete decomposition (e.g. the body’s temporary destruction during autopsy). Post Mortem traces this resonation and accompanies the dead body on its last journey from cold rooms, storages, pathology, taxidermy, scientific collections, morticians, crematories and cemeteries.