Jean Tinguely

The equally burlesque and sepulchral installation Mengele-Dance of Death (1986), created out of the remnants of a devastating fire, assumes a key position in the late oeuvre of Swiss artist Jean Tinguely. The group of kinetic sculptures combines the memento mori motif, a reminder of the equality of all mankind in the face of death, and an admonition against all forms of totalitarianism with the irony and penchant for the grotesque that are peculiar to Tinguely’s work. The publication will be released on occasion of the opening of the specially created exhibition space in the Tinguely Museum Basel. Contributions by Roland Wetzel, Sophie Oosterwijk and Sven Keller, along with an interview with Jean Tinguely shed light on the work’s genesis, the tradition of the dance of death motif, and the myth of the name-giving NS perpetrator Mengele.