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For Alfred Opiolka there is a big mistake when it comes to the last rest.
“That the coffin was made for the dead,” he says.
“Above all, the coffin is beneficial for the bereaved.” Opiolka should be familiar with it.
He has been working as a freelance artist for 40 years, and has been designing shrines and coffins for 16 years.
He started with that, as he says, in order to be able to better deal with his father's death.
Anyone visiting Opiolka in his studio in one of the romantic side streets of the small town of Lindau on Lake Constance will be surprised by the cheerful motifs and the bright colors.
Even if the acquisition of a coffin is seldom an impulse purchase, people passing by would occasionally discover the coffins in the shop window, visit the studio and occasionally even lay a sample.
On request, the artist reports, sometimes with the lid closed.
Successful for 16 years with his coffin art: Alfred Opiolka
Source: Jörn Lorenz
"Painting a coffin shouldn't be a dreary place," says Opiolka.
Obviously, because you can see butterflies on a coffin in the studio, yellow or green tones and many golden details that are typical of his art.
In addition to a filigree hourglass, there are also champagne glasses between used brushes on the painter's bench.
“They are for a couple who ordered a champagne urn.
A bottle and two glasses should fit in this.
When the man dies, his son and wife should drink to him. "
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The encounter with the artist, a stately man with an elaborately coiffed beard and a dark red silk scarf, is anything but mourning.
Alfred Opiolka was born in Zabrze in Poland in 1960 and came to Bavaria at the age of nine.
He did an apprenticeship with an artist in the Allgäu, specializing in facade painting, graphics and writing.
For three years he has lived with his partner Alfred Martin and Königspudel Hermes in Lindau, where he is well known in the city.
When he visits funerals, he often does without mourning clothes, but comes in a green suit.
Roses, butterflies and green meadows on an Opiolka coffin
Source: Jörn Lorenz
He was inspired by other cultures, for example the Mexican day of the dead "Dia de los Muertos", on which a happy reunion with the dead is symbolically celebrated every year.
“Saying goodbye to a loved one should be made into a joyful, unforgettable celebration,” says the artist.
Opiolka believes that one should also express one's feelings in brightly colored clothing in order to deprive death of some of the feelings of loss, suffering and loneliness associated with it.
He finds the color black unsuitable for funerals.
A color of sadness that he thinks we choose for selfish reasons.
“If we want to commemorate the dead and his life, we should dress in color.
Because death can also mean something new, something beautiful.
If you only deal with it early enough. "
For Opiolka it is above all the suppression of death and its therefore surprising occurrence, which mentally burden the bereaved for a long time.
In his book “Death is Green” he explains how one can positively adjust to the inevitable end.
He's seen a lot in that regard.
“I had a customer, then around 70 years old, for whom I painted a coffin according to her wishes.
That was seven years ago, since then the coffin has been used as decoration in your living room, ”says the artist.
The coffin is painted with roses and bright colors.
The woman's children were probably outraged at first, now the coffin belongs to her mother's home.
Death becomes a decorative object - and therefore a little less threatening.
Such an object also helped a widower to live, says Opiolka.
After his wife's death, he bought a second coffin from him and placed it with a few boards as a shelf in the apartment.
In addition to a photo of the couple, it should also contain a few bottles of spirits.
In the Opiolka coffin, the deceased is not laid on waste paper, as is usually the case, but on hay
Source: Jörn Lorenz
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Opiolka's art may be a rarity in Germany, but it has a long tradition internationally.
In Ghana, for example, coffins can take on the most fantastic shapes.
The deceased's occupation determines whether they are buried in a teapot or a taxi.
Unlike in Germany, for example, where a coffin - required by the state - must have a rectangular shape.
However, it is not regulated that it has to do without flourishes, flowers and colors.
According to a study by the Undertaker Association in Germany, a conventional funeral costs between 2000 and 5000 euros.
Simple cremation coffins are available from 500 euros, high-quality wooden coffins from around 1500 euros.
For a work by Opiolka you have to plan around 4000 euros, depending on how detailed it is to be designed.
The artist completes urgent orders in 48 hours, especially since not every coffin is made to measure: “I also have a few ready-made coffins in stock.” In Opiolka's experience, incidentally, poor earners tend to deal with their funeral earlier.
“Probably because particularly wealthy people have more to leave behind and more to lose,” he suspects.
The coffins are locked without screws.
“I had to close my father's coffin with screws, it wasn't a nice experience for me,” explains Opiolka
Source: Jörn Lorenz
Opiolka emphasizes that his art supports the various stages of mourning at which a funeral home often fails: “The mourners are often greeted in a bare room and feel overwhelmed or left alone with the situation.” This is different in the studio on Lake Constance. The conversation with Opiolka before production consoles the relatives and gives the artist an insight into the life of the deceased. The result can sometimes be unconventional and individual: “Once, at the request of his daughters, I painted a Lyoner in the lid of a family man. He loved this sausage. Only the family knows that one of them is immortalized in the lid of his urn. "