The exhibition

People have always had a primeval need to seek out the feeling of intoxication. Even children sometimes enter an intoxicating state when they are playing. Later in life, people seek out this feeling by testing their courage and with sport, music and dance, with love, spirituality, art or by consuming psychoactive substances. Experiencing intoxication is particularly exciting for young people but dealing with risks or seductive tobacco or alcohol advertising is a huge challenge.

What exactly is intoxication? Why do we seek out ecstatic feelings and what do we find fascinating about this? The exhibition is dedicated to studying the phenomenon of “intoxication” and its effects. Visitors will go on a multimedia journey through the historic background, as well as the possibilities and risks of intoxication. The central question is why our society has such a contradictory way of dealing with this phenomenon.

Number of visitors:
January 25, 2023 to June 30, 2023
28’268 persons (without Museums Night)
thereof 302 school classes

Exhibition ended

We would like to thank the many visitors in Bern and Basel!

An exhibition by Expoforum

To the Expoforum website

Insights

A glance at the exhibition

Media

Media imagesPress release (PDF, German)Media digest (PDF, German)

Locations

26.1. – 13.8.2023

Bernisches Historisches Museum

27.10.2023 – 30.06.2024

Basel Historical Museum

Programme

The Bernisches Historisches Museum and the Historisches Museum Basel offered exciting events related to the exhibition. These were posted here or on the respective museum websites.
Museum agenda

Offers

In both museums there were numerous guided tours and other offers related to the exhibition, which were posted here.
Offers

Schools

Offers for schools and youth groups or didactic material for school classes can still be downloaded here.(Language: German)
Offers for schools

Knowledge and more

Learn fascinating things about various topics relating to intoxication, find further links and offers and much more.

Partners

Sounding Board

We would like to thank all the experts who have supported this exhibition by advising us and sharing their expertise:

  • Prof. Irène Abderhalden
  • Nadine Aebischer
  • Dr. med. Reto Auer
  • Tobias Bauer
  • Martina Beeler
  • Dr. med. Toni Berthel
  • Martin Bienlein
  • Peter Blatter
  • Eva Bruhin
  • Marcus Casutt
  • Barbara Christen
  • Damiano Costantini
  • Simona De Berardinis
  • Martin Dworak
  • Réda Philippe El Arbi
  • Dr. Manfred Fankhauser
  • Verena Friedrich
  • Michael Fritsche
  • Lisa Guggenbühl
  • Stefan Hächler
  • Prof. Dr. Martin Hafen
  • Yvonne Haldimann
  • Fulvia Heussler
  • Nina Hobi
  • Markus Jann
  • Bülent Kaya
  • Dr. Stefanie Knocks
  • Prof. Dr. Christian Kropf
  • Barbara Kull
  • Evelyne Laszlo
  • Luc Mentha
  • Benjamin Mortzfeld
  • Dr. Katrin Preller
  • Prof. Dr. Boris Quednow
  • Iwan Reinhard
  • Dr. Corina Salis Gross
  • Prof. Dr. Michael Schaub
  • Prof. Dr. Hasso Spode
  • Prof. em. Dr. Michael Taborsky
  • Angela Thomasius
  • Andreas Tschöpe
  • Dr. Julia Wolf
  • Marc Zehntner