"Art on the coffin"

On a final journey in a personal work of art

Stefan Knöpfer, Karin Posch and Christian Garlik, head of the Stranz funeral home, will be offering artistic and colorful motifs for coffins.

(Bild: Seebacher Doris)

A mortician in Ternitz offers its customers creative coffins for their final journey. These can either be created by regional artists or lovingly and colorfully designed by the customer. 

Everyone knows them, colorless coffins made of different types of wood or with magnificent decorations, depending on the budget, but which hardly reflect the personality of the deceased loved one.

Funeral director Christian Garlik from the Stranz funeral home in Ternitz has therefore come up with something very special. His coffins can now be personalized by regional artists or by the customers themselves. There are no limits to creativity. "It just has to be irreverent," says Garlik.

The company boss himself gets creative. Here, wooden hearts are milled out of the coffin, which can be lovingly decorated with messages or drawings by the relatives at home.

(Bild: Seebacher Doris)

Stefan Knöpfer mills motifs into the wooden coffin using his own burning rod. Butterflies and birds are particularly popular.

(Bild: Seebacher Doris)

Karin Posch is known for her colorful acrylic paintings. Almost any motif can be ordered from her.

(Bild: Seebacher Doris)

Three artists are available for this: One of them is Karin Posch from Ternitz. On request, she paints the coffins with colorful acrylic paints or decorates them with pictures using the collage technique. The motifs are agreed with the bereaved beforehand. "I recently painted a coffin with colorful poppies," says Posch. Another request from a customer: a collage of various photos from his home town of Pottschach.

Stefan Knöpfer designs the coffins with so-called phyrographic motifs, in which motifs are milled into the wood using a burning rod. Popular motifs: "Butterflies and birds," says Knöpfer. 

And the company boss himself also lends his artistic hand. He creates his own patterns and motifs from coffin lid screws.

Self-design as mourning work

Customers can also get creative themselves. "Either at my warehouse or I deliver the coffin to the customer's home," explains Garlik. "The coffin can be painted or simply decorated - with handprints, personal messages, photos or fond farewell words," says the funeral director. The artistic time together can also be seen as mourning work, with families or friends working together to make the coffin particularly loving for the final journey.

Urns can also be painted or designed by the artists themselves.

(Bild: Seebacher Doris)

Design costs by regional artists: from 500 euros (in addition to the coffin and depending on the motif).

The maximum cost for self-design is the cost of materials.

Does he, Garlik, not have a particularly sad job as a mortician? "No, not at all. Because the gratitude of the customers outweighs everything else," says the mortician.

https://www.bestattung-stranz.at/

On March 22 at 4 p.m., the vernissage for "Kunst am Sarg" will take place at the funeral home in Grafenbach.

(Bild: ZVG Bestattung Stranz)