Category: News

Open End 2 – Geneva 2022

Open End 2 – Geneva 2022

In March 2022, Sarco was invited to exhibit as part of the Open End 2 Exhibition in Geneva, Switzerland.

Held at the Cimetiere des Rois (cemetary of the kings, established in 1482 for those who died from the plague), Open End seeks to provoke discussion about ‘the flaws of human nature, between avarice and anxiety about finitude, sometimes opening up new sustainable horizons, progress is also the field of all possibilities’.

The theme of Open End 2 concerns the confrontation between energy-intensive technologies and the collapse of resources, and chooses the dual theme of immortality and the environment.

At the heart of the race towards modernity, contradictory movements collide. Huge investments are feeding the new ultra-technological sectors, capable of both the best and the worst.

It is clear why Sarco – with its futuristic, forward-looking aesthetic – has been invited for exhibition.

The exhibition opens to the public on Friday 16 September and will run until 31 January 2023.

Further details (in French) at OpenEnd2

Nowy Theatre, Poznań Poland 2022

During April 2022, Sarco took centre stage in the play, ‘Right to Choose’ at Nowy Theatre in Poznań, Poland.

Directed by Piotr Kruszczyński, Right to Choose is a play by German playwright and lawyer, Ferdinand von Schirach who is perhaps best known for his play, Terror.

Titled Gott in its native German, ‘Right to Choose’ takes as its starting point the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court from February 2020, that everyone has the right to a self-determined death.

With the help of experts, the play’s Ethics Council discusses the question of whether doctors have to fulfill the request of a suicidal patient.

As in Brecht’s Epic Theater, it is said the audience should form an opinion.

This Kruszczyński production is the Polish premiere of the play, which has proven popular in European theaters and TV stations.

The Polish cast include: Bożena Borowska-Kropielnicka, Antonina Choroszy , Marta Herman, Małgorzata Łodej-Stachowiak, Daniela Popławska, Agnieszka Rożańska, Maria Rybarczyk playing the roles of experts standing before the Ethics Committee, with Aleksander Machalica in the main role as the participant in question.

Sarco creator, Philip Nitschke outside the Nowy Theatre, Poznan, July 2022

 

Peaceful Pill eHandbook February Sarco Update

Peaceful Pill eHandbook February Sarco Update

The Peaceful Pill eHandbook – 2022 Essentials Edition features a revised Chapter on Sarco that details all the reader needs to know, both now and for the coming year.

The Sarco Chapter answers the criticisms/ questions that have arisen in the mainstream media over recent months. Especially since the story of Sarco’s so-called ‘approval’ in Switzerland went viral in the global media.

The Sarco is an exciting, futuristic project that needs to be contemplated and understood before firm conclusions can be drawn.

In the Peaceful Pill eHandbook – Essentials Edition, one can read how Exit expects the Sarco to be used in Switzerland later this year.

More information about the Sarco can be found at Sarco.design

Read the Sarco Blog

Sarco Opens in New Exhibition

Sarco Opens in New Exhibition

Sarco is now on display in a new exhibition at the Museum for Sepulchral Culture in Kassel Germany until February 2022.

The Museum for Sepulchral Culture is the only independent institution committed exclusively to cultural and scientific standards that deals with the entire spectrum of the so-called ‘Last Things’, and dedicated to the issues of dying, death, burial, mourning and remembrance.

The mission statement of the Musuem is that ‘through enlightenment, consultation and mediation’ in exhibitions etc.there is ‘the opportunity for a conscious examination of death’.

The Exhibition is titled – Suizid: Let’s talk about it

Of this Exhibition, the Museum says:

Suicide and suicidality are common, but kept silent and stigmatized topics in society. The exhibition presents information, suggestions, challenges and opportunities that reflect a social and personal approach to suicide. With a view to the history of art and culture, humanities and social sciences, and medicine, but above all to the here and now, our goal is to promote public communication on suicide

Website: https://www.sepulkralmuseum.de/EN/exhibitions/special-exhibitions

Sarco@Museum for Sepulchral Culture

From September 2021, Sarco could be found on display at the Museum for Sepulchral Culture in Kassel, Germany.

The Museum for Sepulchral Culture is a cultural institution of national importance since 1992. It says it is the only institution in the world that is committed exclusively to cultural and scientific standards and deals with death in all its facets.

The museum claims to offer special opportunities to explore, contextualise and communicate these processes.

SUIZID: Let’s Talk About It Exhibition: 10 Sept 2021 – 27 Feb 2022

The Sarco was removed from this exhibition at the request of Exit following universally negative public commentary by the curators and patrons of the Museum.

The museum’s visitors came overwhelmingly from the suicide prevention side of the disciplines of psychiatry, social work and psychology.

Disappointingly, this exhibition (which launched on World Suicide Prevention Day) was curated from the perspective of the traditional medical discourse of universal prevention, than an open-minded dialogue about a person’s right to self-determination at the end of life. Unfortunately, this approach was not made clear to Exit at the time that the invitation.

Sarco is more than a gimmick and should be treated as such.

Opening Night – 10 September 2021

Sarco on display

Gone are the days of a quick entry: masks & covid health passes in hand

Philip Nitschke with Sarco

Listening to the speeches from the overflow room on the Museum terrace Sarco on display

Day of the Dead Dogs in the Museum gift store

Sarco X near ready for Lift Off

Sarco X near ready for Lift Off

NEWS FLASH

Sarco X is almost ready for lift off.

Penultimate lab tests were conducted in the Netherlands on Friday 7 August 2020 & the results are in.

Sarco created an oxygen-free environment in less than one minute.

The oxygen inside the capsule plummeted rapidly from 21% to 0.4% in 50 seconds.

More news to follow as final tests are postponed yet again because of COVID-19!

 

Sarco@Cube Design Museum 2020

Sarco@Cube Design Museum 2020

During 2020, Sarco was in exhibition at the Cube Design Museum in Kerkrade.

Sarco was on display in the exhibition ‘Verwacht: (Re)design Death’ which highlights ‘Dutch and international design projects related to death and the rituals surrounding it.’

The exhibition ran until February 2021.

Unfortunately, because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Dutch lockdown, Cube was closed and then reopened all throughout 2020.

This is alls the more the pity as this exhibition was stunningly staged and expertly curated. Exit congratulates Cube on a sophisticated, beautiful and thought-provoking exhibition.

Cube Design Museum is at: Museumplein 2 6461 MA Kerkrade NL

Opening Night – Monday 10 February 2020

Sarco opening night 4

Sarco opening night 2

Sarco opening night 1

Coffin cakes

 

Amsterdam Funeral Fair

Amsterdam Funeral Fair

The 3D-printed euthanasia device – the Sarco – was displayed for the first time at the Amsterdam Funeral Fair at the Westerkerk.

‘Sarco’ is short for sarcophagus.

At the Fair a laser cut wood model was revealed alongside a virtual reality (VR) demonstration which let attendees experience the pod in action.

The Sarco provides death by hypoxia, or low oxygen, and is designed to be portable.

It will come with a built-in detachable coffin and its inventors claim that a fully-functioning version will be built this year, after which the blueprints will be published in the Peaceful Pill eHandbook.

Amsterdam Funeral Fair

Philip Nitschke at Amsterdam Funeral Fair

Alexander Bannink explaining Sarco at the Amsterdam Funeral Fair