Danse Macabre , 2020
Inspired by the work by Bernt Notke, Dance of Death depicts the various deadly sins of humanity. Chapter by chapter, the work appeared in various European capitals as part of the secret protocol of Edward von Lõngus’ 2017–2018 European tour, codenamed ‘Off-Program Activities’. At ‘Doomsday Cathedral’, Dance of the Death is for the first time exhibited in its entirety. Hanging from the cathedral ceiling, the 13-metre wide painting has been executed on cold-rolled steel plates and weighs more than half a ton.
“Modern death has been industrialised, mechanised, calculated, transformed into factories, machines, numbers and efficiencies. Death is packaged and marketed, bought, sold and mediated. Death is sprayed onto the fields, felled into clearings, thrown into the oceans and released into the atmosphere. The death industry is operating at full speed.”
– Excerpt from the acceptance speech given at the Culture Award Ceremony of the Estonian Foreign Ministry in January 2019
Full speech in Estonian: https://soundcloud.com/indrek-vainu/edward-von-longus-surmatants-restart-reality-loeb-indrek-vainu
The work was exhibited as installation with a wall “Mirror of Truth”
A mirror covering the wall opposite the Dance of Death increases the observer’s interaction with the work, positioning the observer inside the dance.
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