Photography





(Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris)

‘Asi es la vida’ (2004)

Once the proud icons of their time, these locs are left to decay on a ‘train churchyard’ in Uyuni, Bolivia. Rather than having been destroyed, they are exposed to our eyes. In spite of the location name, they are left unburried. The sunset emphasises the final, terminal aspect. Perhaps they remind us of our own mortality. Asi es la vida, such is life. Nothing new, it would seem, think for example of the ‘vanitas’ theme in the history of art. However, these are not living organisms, but machines, man-made objects. Surely machines do not die? Or do they? What is the difference between a machine that stops working and humans that die? In what way, exactly, are we different from machines? The questions of modern philosophy are linked up with the age of science and technology. And in our contemplation of these pictures, projecting our own thoughts and feelings onto the world, Enlightenment meets its faithful companion Romanticism. Two modes of dreaming that continue to shape our thought and experience today.

© Mark Coeckelbergh 2005

'Paris' (2005)

© Mark Coeckelbergh 2005