Eschatology /ˌɛskəˈtɒlədʒi/ is a part of theology concerned with the final events of history, or the ultimate destiny of humanity. This concept is commonly referred to as the “end of the world” or “end time.”
“It happened that a fire broke out backstage in a theater. The clown came out to inform the public. They thought it was a jest and applauded. He repeated his warning. They shouted even louder. So I think the world will come to an end amid the general applause from all the wits who believe that it is a joke.” ― Søren Kierkegaard
Hiroshima and Auschwitz have changed forever the way of humans to “be in the world”. Both events are at the origin of a new era, there has been a before and an after. Nothing will ever be it has been before.
Time does not stand anymore for an open future, time is now what remains, before the End.
Hiroshima and Auschwitz, the origin of the time of the End.
There are cracks in the perception of the familiar that open up the view towards something different, unveiling the familiar world as an illusion.
Ancient Greece, the Tenoch Titlane of the Aztecs, metaphors of civilization, what remains? Breeze, breeze, that’s all breeze.
Fading memories in the eternal now. The industrialization of death, contempt for life, Holocaust, even in the pre-nuclear age, Hiroshima mon Amour! Tu n’as rien vu. The end is already a thing of the past. Waiting for the dawn of a new world. Waiting for the completion of creation. Impermanence, transience, change of epoch, but also alienation, alienation from life, the massification of existence and death are some of the key themes to be found in the series Eschatology.
About Matthias Koch
Matthias Koch is an artist and photographer originally from Germany. He lived and worked in Chile, Venezuela, Mexico, and France and currently established his base camp in the South of France.
He has no special education in photography, which results in a very free and unconventional approach. His photography is driven by his personal search for meaning and understanding of the surrounding world. Photography is for Matthias Koch a tool for philosophical investigation and research of truth as well as a vehicle for artistic expression. The interaction between Humans, Space and Time and the underlying concept of Impermanence is one of his favorite subjects.
“Photography is for me a tool to explore reality, to make seen the unseen, to capture the moment, to pay attention, to be in the present. It is a way of being. Of course you do not need a camera to be in the here and now, but it allows you to fix the moments, to reorder them and to create a new visual reality which expresses your inner world.
I always take pictures of everything that interests me, of what surrounds me, of what calls my attention, without a project in mind. Often some pictures only come to the surface of consciousness after years, like flotsam, which suddenly lies on the beach one morning. It starts with two or three images, the first islands of an archipelago that occupies its place in my mental geography, a new project is born !
Honestly I do not know where my photography is going. I take pictures when I think I need to take them. So projects start in a very instinctive and unconscious way. My photography reflects my personal relationship to others but also my spiritual relationship to the cosmos.
So to make it short, my photography will go there where I will go.”
See the full series Eschatology
