My Motive

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My Motive

Four elementary forms of expression can be distinguished in modern civilization:

Music

Languages

Mathematics

Iconography

Iconography and the “logic of images” constitute the exemplary themes in Aby Warburg’s Bilderatlas Mnemosyne, which is known in English as “Mnemosyne Atlas.” Nowhere are gestures, constellations, ICONOLOGY brought together in such a differentiated way as here. The temporal perspective of the panels extends from Babylon to 1929, the year in which Warburg died.

In this TURNING POINT of 1929 (in which the history of Central Europe still could have moved forward differently than into 1933), Walter Benjamin decided to write his Arcades Project. This is an unfinished, constellative collection describing the timelines and inner connections of INSTITUTIONS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. Benjamin’s work can be seen as a continuation of Aby Warburg’s work. Benjamin’s assumption is that one cannot approach or deal with the twentieth century - as seen from 1929 - in the sense of any emancipatory perspective if one has not first understood the nineteenth century. This can be generalized to say that in the twenty-first century we will not be able to deal effectively with crises or progress if we do not - in faithful continuation of work by Warburg, Benjamin, and others - try to subject all elements of the present, including their roots in the past, to a fair copy. Once again this is a matter of collection, constellation, opposition, orientation.

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