In the musealized city Weimar, Kathrin Schlegel created a fictional gathering of two skulls, based on the greatest demystification of Weimar. In 1822, twenty years after Friedrich Schiller’s death, the mayor of Weimar, an admirer of Schiller’s writings, authorized the retrieval of the poet's remains from a mass grave, unearthing a number of skulls and skeletons. The alleged mortal remains of Friedrich Schiller were placed in Weimar's ducal vault to be joined in 1832 by Goethe's remains. As result the mausoleum has been a popular site of veneration for the poets since the mid-19th century and also the authenticity of Schiller’s remains has been the source of much controversy ever since. In 2008, scientists discovered that the remains inside Friedrich Schiller’s casket belonged to several individuals and none of the unearthed and exhibited skulls was Schiller’s.
Inspired by this long kept myth, Kathrin Schlegel arranged a fictional gathering: two skulls placed in a shimmering cabinet reminding of a Baroque Vanitas painting. The installation stages a final imaginary dialogue between two human skulls that were amongst the ones considered to be of the genius. Will these two unidentified skulls, bereft of their identity, still gain access to Arcadia, as described in Schiller’s poem Resignation? The skull that was honoured excessively/extensively for nearly two centuries as Olympian immortal, turned into an object of historic value itself. We will never know, but the discussion continues. ‘I Tego Arcana Dei’ (‘Begone I keep God’s secrets’), the anagram of Et in Arcadia Ego (‘Even in Arcadia, there am I’, ironically mystifies the scene.
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I Tego Arcana Dei
I Tego Arcana Dei