AUFSCHLAG12
is a group exhibition of BFF Hamburg and this is my contribution.
FUTURE PERFECT
This is a prospective tribute to my son. My son Joel is 20 years old. He was born into troubled times accompanied by an uncertain future. I was born into an uncertain future as well. Everyone was. Every generation has to deal with this special situation. We actually don’t know anything about any kind of future. Are we all lost? Is there any chance of survival? Why must we survive at all? We move ourselves through hopeless dreams and we reach for unattainable goals. We waste our limited time on this planet with selfish behavior and self-destructive actions. We have to raise our awareness again and again. I took my son for a walk and we strolled around some hidden spots of my hometown. My son starts recording and thus conserving sounds from the woods with his smartphone. As if he is absorbing moments and impressions he had never experienced when he was smaller and is willing to learn about those now. And intends to save them forever. Will those sounds disappear in the near future? No more singing birds, no winds rushing through the trees, no rivers meander their way through untouched grounds, creating a natural level of noise that calms our souls? My son is hugging trees. Will they be gone in a while? What is on his mind? Does he already know what might be happening very soon? Does he know what I don’t know and probably never will? My son documents nature with his tiny analog camera that once belonged to his grandfather! Sustainable thoughts indeed. Do we need to live with prerecorded material of sights and sounds of former times in the future? How do we receive and preserve emotions, hugs and touches? My son is my future. All sons and all daughters should be our future. We should not leave them any scrap and rubbish.
