Being indifferent to one’s age is not easy in our youth-obsessed society. The photo of the French artist Louise Bourgeois by the Belgian photographer Alex van Gelder is all the more impressive: Right at the beginning of the current exhibition “Alter & Ego” by the Eres Foundation in Schwabing, the viewer encounters the portrait from the last years of the artist’s life. It radiates serenity and a touch of defiance and seems to ask: “What’s the point of all this fuss about old age?” Bourgeois had fought for recognition for her art for many years, but was able to experience her rise to worldwide fame in the second half of her life – thus belying our fear of constant decline after midlife.
The work of the Munich artist Thomas Silberhorn also deals with our fear in the face of our own aging process. Originally structured social models often deal with aging in a positive way: in many indigenous tribes in America, for example, aging is mostly associated with privileges. The older tribe members are well integrated and cared for. On the other hand, as a Western society, we are said to have a cramped approach to old age: In a performance-oriented society, there is an inevitable fear of slowly reducing skills – and then of not being needed any more. Silberhorn makes this fear visible with his installation of an old stair lift: placed bent in the middle of an exhibition room, the lift can be switched on and then, with revolutions and scrubbing against the walls, travels through the room in a circle. Looking helpless and a bit desperate, the self-struggling device so aptly portrays how we feel when we have to face our own aging.
Thomas Silberhorn’s installation “Flow 2” from 2015. A broken stair lift that drives around helplessly as a symbol of the helplessness that many old people feel.
(Photo: Eres Foundation, Thomas Dashuber/ Thomas Silberhorn)
The work “On and on and on” by the collective “Eres colliders” also deals with the fight against aging. The installation turns around Abba and their new show “Voyage”. The performance capture process brings the four famous Swedes to the stage as rejuvenated avatars in the concert hall in London that was specially built for the project. In addition, old analog recordings and digitally altered recordings of the band members in different age groups are on display: the viewer can indulge in mental games of a future in which it might be possible to let one’s own consciousness live on after death in an avatar or robot.
More than full and clean: Sibylle Fendt shows the humane counter-model to elderly care
Another theme of the exhibition is the question of how we deal with aging people in our system. The short film “Uninvited Guests” by the design studio Superflux from 2015 shows in a humorous way what care for the elderly could look like in the future: An older, single man lives in the “smart home” set up by his children, but defies the uncomfortable instructions of the Devices. Instead of eating the vegetables that his smart fork is supposed to register and report, he devours schnitzel and fries, but pokes at the vegetables with the fork next to them – and satisfies the smart fork. So humans are smarter than their machines here, but still allow themselves to be controlled by them: there is hardly any interaction with humans anymore, and the everyday life of the old gentleman seems infinitely sad.
The photo journey by the artist Sibylle Fendt (“Gärnter’s Reise”, 2008), on the other hand, shows the humane alternative model of caring for the elderly – with contact with real people, ideally with the people you love. In the summer of 2008, Fendt documented the last trip together of a dementia patient and her partner. The result is a series of emotional shots that are partly sad, but above all comforting to look at.
The other works in the exhibition by German and international artists, which cover a wide range of genres from classic paintings to photographs and videos to installation art, are also worth a visit for anyone who wants to deal with fundamental questions about aging in our time: with the human urge Egos fighting or denying aging on the one hand, and attempts to deal with aging more humanely on the other.
Alter & Ego, Eres Foundation, Römerstr. October 15 to 20, Thursday, 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and by appointment: Telephone 089/388 79079; the scientific lecture series begins on Thursday, Sept. 22, information at https://eres-stiftung.de/en