Still Life? - PBF04 / Klaus Pichler
15 November to 21 December 2019
Klaus Pichler captured with humor the interaction between the animals and the spaces behind the scenes of the Natural History Museum.
The series Skeletons in the Closet starts when Klaus Pichler glimpses one night in the basement of the Natural History Museum in Vienna. He sees an office with a desk, a computer, shelves, and a stuffed antelope. This experience leaves him wondering: what does a museum look like behind the scenes? How are exhibits stored when they are not on display? Intrigued by these questions, he starts to work on this project after being granted permission to take photographs in the museum.
He focused on the less well-known departments of the museum and their contents. Spaces behind the scenes such as depots, cellars, and storage rooms which are generally not accessible to the public. He found an impressive array of still lives in the museum’s back rooms. Full of life, but dead nonetheless.
