Ausstellung „The Atomic Age“ in Paris | EUROtoday

„The last photo“ – wir sehen das letzte Bild unseres Planeten, eine Aufnahme kurz vor seinem endgültigen Verschwinden. Ein rauchartiger Schleier umgibt die Erde, ihre Ränder lösen sich auf, die Kontinente zersetzten sich. Am Ende wird vielleicht nichts als die ewige Nacht des Weltalls zurückbleiben, die Menschheit wäre dann nicht mehr als eine bloße Episode in der endlosen Geschichte des Universums gewesen.

Das Bild ist Teil der Ausstellung „L’Âge atomique“, die gerade im Pariser Musée d’Art Moderne zu sehen ist. Sie dokumentiert, wie bildende Künstler im 20. Jahrhundert auf die Zumutungen des Atomzeitalters reagiert haben. „The last photo“ ist eine Arbeit der damals in der DDR lebenden Plakatkünstlerin Gerda Dassing aus dem Jahr 1983. Damals befand die Welt sich im Kalten Krieg, spätestens seit der Bombardierung von Hiroshima und Nagasaki war die Vernichtung des gesamten Globus in den Bereich des Denkbaren gerückt. Schon mit dem Koreakrieg und der Kubakrise war die Rede vom dritten Weltkrieg aufgekommen, Anfang der Achtzigerjahre hatte die Stationierung der mit Atomsprengköpfen versehenen Mittelstreckenraketen in Ost und West das Wettrüsten in ein neues, gefährliches Stadium geführt. Auch die Bedrohung der Biosphäre und die Ausbeutung der natürlichen Ressourcen der Erde zeichnete sich bereits deutlich ab.

Dassing’s imaginative and prescient impressively expresses the darkish temper of these years. Behind this “last photo” there’s one other, world-famous picture in cultural reminiscence: the {photograph} of the “blue marble,” taken on December 7, 1972 by the crew of the Apollo 17 mission: the primary picture that Earth’s inhabitants obtained Showing house from the surface. The chic fantastic thing about the “blue marble” floating in house has usually been described. At the identical time, the sight of them additionally induced a beforehand unknown uneasiness: the nameless view from house invited one to all of a sudden make one’s personal planet seem unusual and distant. The picture from house, the thinker Günter Anders wrote on the time, reveals the Earth “as flotsam and jetsam of the universe,” not as acquainted because it had at all times appeared to Earth’s inhabitants till then, however “as it would appear to distant beings.” With the nameless take a look at the distant planet, humanity had change into alien to itself for the primary time.

Eleven years later, Dassing’s gloomy imaginative and prescient surpassed this unease as soon as once more: not solely the strangeness of the earth, but in addition its closing disappearance is staged. Final photographs have an odd aura: the final picture of an animal species threatened with extinction, the final picture of a mountain glacier earlier than its irretrievable disappearance, the final picture of an individual who died shortly afterwards – all of those photographs are closing in a disturbing method. You catch a final glimpse, however it comes too late as a result of the top of what’s proven within the image is sealed. The final picture of one thing can solely exist as soon as: nothing follows it anymore. Moreover, if this farewell look is directed on the whole planet, no thought of ​​a potential posterity stays.

Almost half a century has handed because the artist imagined this “last photo” of the Earth. Given the present world scenario, Dassing’s gloomy imaginative and prescient could seem to be a becoming image to some individuals right this moment. There is battle in Ukraine and the Middle East, the United States will quickly be reacted by a gambler, populism and extremism are spreading, the outcomes of the UN local weather convention in Baku and the biodiversity convention in Cali fell in need of expectations. And but Dassing’s “last photo” doesn’t function an icon of resignation. It is a reminder that there was already a peace motion at the moment in whose atmosphere the poster was distributed. “Swords into plowshares” was their motto. Above all, the final picture of the Earth can’t disguise its personal contradictions: it can’t be the final picture of humanity, as a result of somebody should nonetheless be there to take a look at it. As lengthy because the “last photo” is seen, the top of the world is not going to happen.