Intercultural knowledge

Chatting with ancient greats

The special exhibition “FACING HISTORY” ingeniously brings Apollo, Hermes, Sappho and Co. to life – by video projection. The ancient gods, poets and thinkers – or to put it more precisely the sculptures in the University of Bern’s Collection of Antiquities – can react to their counterpart and answer his/her questions about their lives and loves. Actors, as well as philosopher Rebekka Reinhard, are “lending” the sculptures their faces. Physical interaction is made possible by digital technologies such as speech recognition and facial expression detection.

The exhibition is based on a concept by the media artists Frantiček Klossner and Marc-André Gasser. It was created in collaboration with Elena Mango, Professor of Mediterranean Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bern.

FACING HISTORY received an award from the Office of Culture of the Canton of Bern as part of the “kultur.digital” innovation competition for digital cultural education and cultural involvement. The exhibition is under the patronage of Christine Häsler, Minister of Education and Culture of the Canton of Bern. The exhibition is running from June 8, 2019, to June 7, 2020.