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Exhibition area: 1550m²
Commissioned by: Burghauptmannschaft Österreich
Curator: Brigitte Felderer
Graphic design: Schienerl D/AD
Project management: Rath & Winkler, Gabriele Rath
Overall management: Burghauptmannschaft Österreich: Waltraut Schreilechner, Viktoria Hammer
Employees: René Waclavicek
The last things in life
An Exhibition about Death and Mourning 1765 – 2015
9/2014–6/2015
Today the state rooms of the Innsbruck Hofburg are still a reminder of the death of an Emperor: Francis Stephen of Lorraine died there suddenly in 1765, and his widow – Empress Maria Theresa – had the prestigious rooms of the imperial residence converted into a memorial for her husband.
250 years later, an exhibition reactivates the Habsburg cult of death – and invites us to reflect on our own Response to death and mourning. The exhibition shows how old
death rituals have changed: aristocratic protocol replaced by burgher etiquette, and rural traditions contrasted with urban modernity.