Life and Death

Life and Death. It's a theme that touches us all. In Antwerp's MAS it takes up two of the five floors on which the permanent exhibition is displayed and it starts from the great existential questions that have been asked in every age and every culture: Where do we come from? Where are we going to? What happens after we die?

Life and Death. On Gods and Men, on the seventh floor, introduces us to the huge variety of interpretations and the deep need for rituals that are found wherever man has made his home. The objects on display, which are part of the MAS's permanent collection, come mainly from ancient Egypt, sub-Saharan Africa, Melanesia, India, Tibet, Turkey - and Antwerp. They illustrate the way people in diverse cultures look at life and death. Is a body buried or cremated? Is there an afterlife, or simply nothing? Is death followed by rebirth? What role do gods, ancestors and spirits play? How should we sacrifice, pray or meditate? Works of art and ritual objects transform the intangible and indescribable into something that can be touched and understood. There are similarities and differences, but death is nearly always associated with new life.

Life and Death. On the Upper and Underworld. With the Paul and Dora Janssen-Arts Collection on the eighth floor shows objects from Central and South America and is the subject of another book in this series.