Exhibition

“The last days” – more topical than ever

Artist Deborah Sengl used taxidermied rats to recreate scenes from "The Last Days of Mankind".

(Bild: Mischa Nawrata, Deborah Sengl)

Artist Deborah Sengl shakes things up with her rats at the Jewish Museum Vienna. 

When Deborah Sengl recreated scenes from "The Last Days of Mankind" with 200 stuffed rats at the Essl Museum in 2014 to commemorate the centenary of the First World War, she was already pointing out the topicality of Karl Kraus' monumental work. A topicality that has become all the more urgent in recent years. "The division in society, the ignorance, has only become stronger," she says in the interview.

The Viennese artist Deborah Sengl.

(Bild: David Visnjic)

And so not only the Karl Kraus anniversary year, but also this super election year with all its challenges for democracy is a good time to show the rats once again. Hence this time under the new title "The last days of democracy".

The rats want to shake up civil society 
For the exhibition at the Jewish Museum, which runs until the National Council elections on September 29, 16 of the original 44 re-enacted scenes were selected. "We are not showing the war this time, but want to shake up civil society and reflect on what is currently happening in our society."

Even though Sengl's installations speak for themselves, they are accompanied by text miniatures by author Lydia Haider. "Her texts are a work of art in their own right," emphasizes Sengl, "and thanks to current topics and her modern language, they manage to be even more in the here and now."

(Incidentally, the taxidermied animals were not killed; the skins of feeder rats were used for breeding birds of prey and reptiles).

On display from June 19 at the Jewish Museum Vienna.