Museum der Kulturen Basel
Until January 24, 2027

Colors make the world look bright. They frame the way we perceive the world. People use colors purposefully in order to lend things social and political meaning. But does everybody perceive and experience them in the same way? In a flight across the Museum der Kulturen’s collection, their pink owl spotted a range of colorful objects and now tells their stories in the exhibition. Some 200 objects in the exhibition also have stories to tell about color in general and their own color in particular. They explain how colors are obtained, made, and traded, with colonialism playing a prominent part. The objects also reveal how color is used as protection or as jewelry, and how it connects people.

Colour conveys messages and stirs emotions. Just how much of a difference color makes is shown by carnival masks from Basel, decorations for dairy herds in rural Switzerland, devotional images, and hand-tinted photographs. In another exhibition space, visitors can follow the batik technique of making designs on cloth step by step. All of these stories reveal that people use color quite deliberately: it makes things special, helps draw attention to details, lends significance, illustrates realities, and creates atmosphere.

Through these encounters, visitors can learn a lot about the production, perception, and significance of colors. You can delve into the colorful stories that come with the collection items. They tell of the contentious nature of the color red, why yellow and green are believed to protect, how pink and blue are understood differently—and why the owl is pink. Hands-on stations and a large studio invite visitors to discover colors with all their senses. The exhibition was created in collaboration with children and people with sensory impairments and can be experienced with many senses. Because colors are not only for the eye, they also touch us.

https://www.mkb.ch/en/ausstellungen/2026/die-eule-ist-pink.html

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