The Emperor of Mexico was Austrian

If we believe Eusebio Ramirez, a custodian at a mask museum in Mexico City and at the same time narrator of ‘The Dust of the Ancestors’, the dead keep on existing for as long as they are remembered. Only if they fall into oblivion, they crumble into dust. If that is true, Archduke Maximilian I of Austria, the Emperor of Mexico, must have “survived” his execution by firing squad on June 19, 1867, and still abides among us.

With ‘The Dusts of the Ancestors’ (avant-Verlag, 2012), the Berlin artist Felix Pestemer has created a sublimely illustrated graphic novel, for which he absorbed knowledge about customs, traditions, and folklore of the local population during several extended stays in Mexico over the years. The atmosphere of the Mexican culture of death, both cheerful and morbid, transcends the boundaries of the comic book medium by integrating reflections on death and memory. In addition to original graphics and objects, the exhibition, shown earlier at several other locations (e.g. the Museum for Sepulchral Culture Kassel), also exclusively presents the illustration of the defleshed Archduke Maximilian I of Austria.

 

 

Festival opening: Thursday, March 21, 2013, 4 p.m., OK – Offenes Kulturhaus OÖ, cinema hall 1
afterwards, starting at 5 p.m.: opening of the exhibitions at the OÖ Kulturquartier

Opening hours of the studio gallery during the festival:
Thursday, march 21st, 5- 8 P.M.
Friday, march 22nd, 2- 6 P.M.
Saturday, march 23rd, 2- 5 P.M.
Sunday, march 24th, 11 A.M.- 5 P.M.

Book signing hours of Felix Pestemer:
Friday, march 22nd, 3 and 6 P.M. at the booth of Pictopia

Guided tour through the exhibition (with Felix Pestemer):
Friday, march 22nd, 5 P.M.

Contact

Landstraße 31, 4020 Linz
Tel. +43/ 732/ 7720-16395
Fax. +43/ 732/ 7720-216399
diekunstsammlung.kd.post@ooe.gv.at

Opening hour

Tue- Fri, 2- 6 P.M., Sat, 2- 5 P.M.
Holiday closed
Free entry