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Photo V. Otth-N. Lieber, MICR |
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Newspaper and magazine articles, books, films and television broadcasts regularly bombard us with scenarios of catastrophe on a planetary scale: climate changes, technological disasters, nuclear war, entire continents engulfed by armed conflict, not to mention the threats posed by asteroids and meteors. These dire predictions cast doubt on the survival of the human race. In the second part of the exhibition, visitors are invited to reflect on the meaning of apocalyptic prophecies today, the end of the world being associated in many people's minds with the countless faults committed by mankind in the twentieth century. This commonly held opinion is confronted with the views of historians, anthropologists, astrophysicists, psychologists, philosophers and theologians... |
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"Apocalypse Now", Francis Ford Coppola, 1979.
Museum für Gestaltung,Plakatsammlung, Zurich.
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"Le météore de la nuit"
[It Came From Outer Space], Jack Arnold, 1953.
Collection MICR.
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Having viewed some fifty science-fiction and disaster films, the Museum drew up an inventory of the apocalyptic scenarios and imagery which they contain. With humour that sometimes verges on derision, the five video clips produced for the exhibition show how such films are based on a contemporary mythology of the apocalypse that draws both on Christian beliefs and on the realities confronting mankind today. "Coupez tout immédiatement" (Turn off the switch!) evokes the fall of man: playing on our fears that new technologies will lead to alienation, it shows what happens when human beings take themselves for God and lose control over their inventions. The other videos deal with dangers from outer space and the threats posed by war, nuclear technology and environmental disasters. All in all, these videos take an ambivalent attitude towards the apocalypse in that they seem to be warning us of mankind's destruction while at the same time holding out a promise of renewal, in some cases even offering hope for a bright future. A video loop shows the new Adam and Eve endlessly alighting from their spacecraft to discover a world restored to its original state.
The eleven original posters displayed in the exhibition reflect the rich diversity of these apocalyptic films. They include a dramatic poster for "J'accuse" (1938), by Abel Gance, a film that came out shortly before Europe was plunged back into war; a disturbing American poster for "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951), by Robert Wise; and a poster produced for the Japanese release of "Apocalypse Now" (1979). These posters come from the Museum's collections and from those of the Cinémathèque suisse (Lausanne), the Maison d'Ailleurs (Yverdon) and the Museum für Gestaltung (Zurich).
The last exhibit is a life-size model of an elegantly furnished living room featured in a magazine advertisement for earthquake insurance. The word "fin" [end] displayed on the television set invites us to examine our feelings: and what if the end of the world was simply a phantasy conjured up by the fear of our own death?
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