Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger

KBH.G
Longevity is a desire as old as humankind. In the near future, we may have numerous ways to slow or even reverse aging, with some in proof-of-concept experiments and others already in human trials. The first anti-aging drugs could arrive within the decade, followed by a procession of therapies. Yet, the exhibition grapples with the social, economic, and cultural implications of longevity. Do we truly wish to live forever? How would society cope with people aged 150 or over? Is there a need to enact the right to die? These questions and more will be explored in this exhibition. Definite answers may be elusive, but with the aid of speculative fiction and insights from internationally acclaimed scientists, we may catch a glimpse of the possible future of longevity.

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Floor plan

You are entering an alternative reality. Each room opens up a new perspective on a life in which biological aging has been abolished. At the very end, there is a reality check: what do our experts have to say about how longevity research will develop?

1. Reception

Imagine a world in which biological death is abolished! Of course, we no longer need hospitals. That’s why these buildings are abandoned and in decay. And where are the people? Patients, staff? Voices sound out of old loudspeakers:

“If it’s really a perfect replica of who I am, I would enjoy being around for a little bit longer,”

One professor says.
“Elongated ears and noses are considered pretty these days,” a young girl claims. Then, suddenly, a strange version of The Cold Song from Purcell’s King Arthur resounds, performed on a glass harp. Any wonder that someone suddenly calls: “When I was thawed, I was fifty-two years younger than my daughter.” From the corner, Adwaita observes the hustle and bustle of the exhibition visitors. When the turtle passed away in a Calcutta zoo in the year 2006, it was at least 255 years old.

2. Control Room

Short films share with us the partially grotesque, partially stunning consequences of a life without biological death.

Perfect Immortal Vision, with Hana Motokura.
A Japanese teenager claims she is over one hundred years old and reversed the biological clock against the mainstream obsession with old age.

Wär het das nit wölle vo uns, with Urs Baur aka Black Tiger.
A rapper is lost in confusion in the face of the new opportunities offered to him in a world without death.

I-Myself-the-Avatar, with Jürg Kienberger.
A pensioner who likes to lead a contemplative life, playing self-made instruments and a game of boules, is urged by his avatar to aim for a healthier lifestyle. The avatar speaks from a future fifty years from now.

Ah, Humanity!, with Graham Valentine.
Two eccentric intellectuals – twins – get into an argument about the sense or nonsense of physical and mental self-optimization.

MotherDaughter, with Tabitha Frehner.
A mother in an eco-dictatorship dedicates a message to her unborn son. Giving birth is not allowed. But in a later time, a daughter appears, from a frozen embryo. The daughter herself will soon give birth to a son. The ban on having children has apparently been lifted.

3. Lab room

Welcome to the Lab Room. Yes, it has been re­purposed at some point. God knows what these mirrors were installed for. In the meantime, they allow us to look into the invisible world of our cells, genes, molecules, atoms. The world of 10−9 or 0.000000001.

“But all joys want eternity” comments Zarathustra’s roundelay in view of the nano­world’s deliberations as they expand into boundlessness.

4. Surgery Room

JetztSong, with Tabitha Frehner.
The last seconds in the life of a woman who ends her endless life, hoping for a meaningful afterlife. While lying on the operating table, she has an out-of-body experience and wanders through moments of her life with mortals before they died out. She remembers having been born in a world where there were mortal and immortal people. The mortal ones became extinct at some point. The immortal ones led endlessly long lives. But the woman discovered that an endless life does not bring fulfillment.

“Life is poor since we have been healed of aging,”

She found out.
Life is impoverished without a fear of the future. For without fear, there is also no hope.

5. Recovery Room

After all these strange stories from an alternative reality, there is no harm in hearing/listening to what researchers from our world of mortals have to say about the theme of aging. We met up with some of them.
Fiona Marshall, President, Biomedical Research Novartis
Alex Schier, Cell Biologist, University of Basel
Markus Rüegg, Neurobiologist, University of Basel
Christoph Handschin, Cell Biologist, University of Basel
Venki Ramakrishnan, Structural Biologist, Cambridge UK. Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry
Michael N. Hall, Molecular Biologist, University of Basel
Linda Partridge, Geneticist, University College London
Jess Bone, Epidemiologist, University College London
Hendrik Scholl, Ophthalmologist, University of Basel
Matt Kaeberlein, Biogerontologist, University of Washington, Seattle
They expressed their views on these themes: The meaning of Being. State­-of­-the-­art longevity research. Why and how we age? What is healthy aging, and how can it be achieved? Is aging a disease? Has the first person to live 150 years been born already? Forever young. The animal, your friend and test subject. L’homme machine. Rapamycin, the elixir of longevity. Aging, hope, fear and big money. Take personal control over your health! Science fiction as inspiration and phantasma. Old age is beautiful, if you get it right.
Open daily from 11 am until 6 pm, except Tuesdays. Free entry

Address

Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger | KBH.G
Spitalstrasse 18, 4056 Basel, Schweiz

Credits works of the exhibition

Bright hospital

Idea : Michael Schindhelm
Set Design : veneer

Adwaita

Sculpture by Beat Künzler

Perfect Immortal Vision

Starring: Hana Motokura
Directed, written and produced by: Michael Schindhelm
Cinematography: Sven Rufer
Edited by: Stefano Cravero
VFX by: Dimitri Erhard
Sound Design: Till Zehnder
Sound Recording: Lesh J. Parekh
Agency: Melina Lee, Faces Agency Singapore
Science visualisations: Peter Maloca, Christian Prünte
Executive manager: Filippo Armati

I, Myself
and the Avatar

Starring: Jürg Kienberger
Directed, co-written and produced by: Michael Schindhelm
Co-written by: Claudia Carigiet
Music by: Jürg Kienberger
Cinematography: Sven Rufer
Assistant camera: Kiu Mergenthaler
Edited by: Stefano Cravero
VFX by: Dimitri Erhard

Sound Design: Till Zehnder
Sound Recording: Denis Szram
Make Up: Yara Rapold

Executive manager: Filippo Armati

Ah, Humanity!

Starring: Graham Valentine
Directed, co-written:
Michael Schindhelm
Co-written: Graham Valentine
Music by: Jürg Kienberger, Till Zehnder
Cinematography: Sven Rufer
Assistant camera: Kiu Mergenthaler
Edited by: Stefano Cravero
VFX by: Dimitri Erhard
Sound Design: Till Zehnder
Sound Recording: Denis Szram
Make Up: Yara Rapold
Executive manager: Filippo Armati

MotherDaughter

Starring: Tabitha Frehner
Directed, co-written and produced by: Michael Schindhelm
Co-written: Tabitha Frehner
Cinematography: Sven Rufer
Assistant camera: Kiu Mergenthaler
Edited by: Stefano Cravero
VFX by: Dimitri Erhard
Music, Sound Design: Till Zehnder
Sound Recording: Denis Szram
Make Up: Yara Rapold
Science visualizations: Novartis
Executive manager: Filippo Armati

Wär het das nit wölle
vo uns?

Performed and written by: Urs Baur aka Black Tiger
Directed and produced by: Michael Schindhelm
Music by: Urs Baur aka Black Tiger
Cinematography: Sven Rufer
Edited by: Stefano Cravero
VFX by: Dimitri Erhard
Sound Design: Till Zehnder
Sound Recording: Gabriel Meisel
Make Up: Yara Rapold
Executive manager: Filippo Armati

Jetzt Song

Starring: Tabitha Frehner
Directed, written and produced by: Michael Schindhelm
Cinematography: Sven Rufer
Edited by: Stefano Cravero
VFX by: Dimitri Erhard
Music and sound design: Till Zehnder
Sound Recording: Denis Szram
Make Up: Yara Rapold
Science visualizations: Novartis
Executive manager: Filippo Armati

Endless

Picture composition: Stefano Cravero and Michael Schindhelm
Voice: Michael Schindhelm
Sound Design by: Till Zehnder
Science visualisations: Novartis

The End of Aging?
(An Enquiry)

Protagonists: Jess Bone, Michael N. Hall, Christoph Handschin, Matt Kaeberlein, Fiona Marshall, Linda Partridge, Venki Ramakrishnan, Markus A. Rüegg, Alexander Schier, Hendrik Scholl
Directed and produced by: Michael Schindhelm
Cinematography: Salvatore di Pino, Luzius Müller
Editing: Stefano Cravero, Carlo Bertasso
Music and sound design: Till Zehnder
Sound Recording: Denis Szram
Executive manager: Filippo Armati

Graffiti works

Steven Gravino and Urs Baur

"I have garnered inspiration for this project from the works of, and talks by, Ray Kurzweil, Terry Grossman, Aubrey de Grey, David Sinclair, Andrew Steele and numerous publicly available writings published recently on the theme of longevity."

Michael Schindhelm

Acknowledgements

kbhg

Rebecca Eigen
Exhibitions & Public Program

Christiane Pohl
Assistant to the Director

Raphael Suter
Director

Stephanie Suter
Communication & Marketing

Nicole Strube
Photography

Clarissa Wiese
Social Media

Films

Filippo Armati
Project Manager

Patrick Bader
University of Basel

Gian-Luca Baumgartner
Logistics

Urs Baur aka Black Tiger

Performer, Author

Carlo Bertasso
Assistant editor

Jess Bone
Researcher, interviewee

Claudia Carigiet
Co-Author

Stefano Cravero
Editor

Dimitri Erhard
VFX

Salvatore di Pino
Cinematography

Tabitha Frehner
Actress, co-Author

Judith Graf
FHNW

Matthias Geering
University of Basel

Simone Grumbacher
Biozentrum, University of Basel

Michael N. Hall
Researcher, interviewee

Christoph Handschin
Researcher, interviewee

Anna Herzig
FHNW

Arianit Jashari
Novartis

Matt Kaeberlein
Researcher, interviewee
Jürg Kienberger
Actor / Musician

Michaela Kneissel
Researcher Novartis

Christoph Kohler
Canton Basel City

Peter Krottenthaler
Theater Basel

Melina Lee
Faces Agency SG

Olivia Lopez
Theater Basel

Peter Maloca
Researcher, University of Basel

Fiona Marshall
Researcher, interviewee

Gabriel Meisel
Sound recording

Kiu Mergenthaler
Assistant Camera

Manuela Meyer
FHNW

Hana Motokura
Actress

Luzius Müller
Cinematography

Brigitte Olufsen
Biozentrum, University of Basel

Lesh J. Parekh
Sound recording

Linda Partridge
Researcher, interviewee

Frank Petersen
Researcher, Novartis

Selcuk Polat
FHNW

Christian Prünte
Researcher, University of Basel

Venki Ramakrishnan
Researcher, interviewee

Yara Rapold
Theater Basel

Nelly Riggenbach
Novartis

Pascale Rippstein
FHNW

Markus A. Rüegg
Researcher, interviewee

Sven Rufer
Cinematography

Michael Sackmann
Ferry boat

Tilman Saleh
Novartis

Alexander Schier
Researcher, interviewee

Falko Schlottig
FHNW

Karin Schmitz
Theater Basel

Hendrik Scholl
Researcher, interviewee

Torsten Schwede
Vice Rector, University of Basel

André Steinbach
Service Kilchenmann Novartis

Denim Szram
Sound recording

Graham Valentine
Actor / Co-Author

Christian Wiesmann
Researcher Novartis

Till Zehnder
Music / Sound design

Scenography

Harald Back
Exhibition building

Nicola Bischof
iart System Engineering

Steffen Blunk
iart Construction Management

Franz Burkhardt
Exhibition building

Ursula Degen
Light Design

Markus Ebbighausen
iart Software Engineering

Erik Axel Eggeling
iart System Engineering

Alexio Garcia
iart Installation and Maintenance

Steven Gravino
Graffiti Artist

Beat Grossniklaus
Exhibition building

Ivan Hörler
iart Audio Technology

Giorgia Imber

Exhibition building

Verena Fleissig
iart Media Planning

Beat Künzler
Turtle sculpture

Avi Lasry
Exhibition building

Barbara Maggio
Exhibition planning / building

Giulio Margheri
Design, Scenography

Luca Moscelli
Design, Scenography

Viktor Paul
iart Installation Management

Anna Pfeiffer
iart Project Management

Nelson Schiff
iart Installation and Maintenance

Stefan Schmidt
iart Servicing and Support

Valentin Sträuli
iart Computer Scientist

Jerome Weber
iart IT Support and Servicing

Johannes Wernicke
iart System Engineering

PUBLICATION AND COMMUNICATION

Alexandra Bradley
Media Relations

Ginevra Fiorentini
Media Relations

Giga Design Studio
Website: Gabriele Donini, Pablo Galbusera, Giacomo Scandolara, Matteo Garagiola, Tommaso Algozzino, Cecilia Aguzzi, Gabriele Leonardi, Pietro Ariel Parisi, Francesco Bonetti, Xenia Havrylova

Stefano Zeni
3D scans

Andreas Kreienbühl
Publication, Graphics

Imprint

Published by
Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger | KBH.G kbhg.ch

Design by
Giga Design Studio

Production by
Lavapolis