Ever Since Night Falls (Berner Totentanz (Bern Dance of death), Niklaus Manuel Dutsch, 1520)
Ever Since Night Falls is an installation that features different sculptures reinterpreting lost, forgotten, or destroyed works. Alvaro Urbano disregards the situations and motivations that led to the disappearance of these works. They have come back to life, but are nevertheless removed from the context of their respective eras. The artist creates a utopian collection by fictitiously creating a contemporary reflection of forgotten artefacts. Ever Since Night Falls takes up the motif of the danse macabre, a typology developed in the late Middle Ages. It is a round dance that illustrates social equality in the face of death: the different social classes are represented as being led towards Death by skeletons. The artist revives the memory of the fresco on this theme painted by Niklaus Manuel Deutsch on the wall of a Bern cemetery in the sixteenth century.
Text written by Léonie Maton as part of the partnership between the École du Louvre and Lafayette Anticipations – Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin.
Exhibition
Art Basel, Bâle (Suisse)
from 13 Jun to 16 Jun 2019