History

Photo of the "Tunnel of Questions" in the Dialogue with Time exhibition Holon, Israel. The walls of the tunnel are bathed in purple light and various questions around the topic of age are written on them.

For over ten years Orna Cohen and Andreas Heinecke have been working on ways to transfer the experience gained from the exhibitions Dialogue in the Dark and Dialogue in Silence to an exhibition about the situation of old people. Both were disturbed by the undifferentiated discussion about aging, the tendency of many people to avoid wresting a positive side from their own aging process and the notion that people are subject to discrimination and exclusion after they have reached a certain age. Orna and Andreas couldn’t understand why a unique achievement in the history of mankind – more and more people reach old age in good condition – causes above all fears on various levels. Both gladly accepted an invitation from the Israeli Children's Museum in Holon to realize the exhibition in cooperation with a circle of experts.

The success in Israel motivated Orna and Andreas to adapt Dialogue with Time to the demographic circumstances in Germany and to build a network of supporters in order to make an important contribution to the overall discussion in an aging society. With the financial support of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and the Generali Zukunftsfonds, the critical reflection of the contents by the BAGSO and the openness of the Museums of Communication in Frankfurt and Berlin to show the exhibition in Germany, the foundation was laid.

Since then Dialogue with Time was presented in several museums as at the National Science center of Taipei, the Finish Science Center Heureka in Vantaa, The Museum of Communication in Bern and from 2017 as a permanent exhibition in the Singapore Science Center. In 2018 the exhibition reached Brazil and the third permanent Dialogue with Time exhibition opened in the Dialoghaus, Hamburg.