Angelus Novus: The Angel of History
ANGELUS NOVUS, my translation from: "On the Concept of History IX" by Walter Benjamin:
There is a picture by Paul Klee called Angelus Novus. In it an angel is depicted who appears as if trying to distance himself from something at which he is staring. His eyes and his mouth gape wide, his wings are stressed to their limit. The Angel of History must look this way; he has turned to face the past. Where we see a constant chain of events, he sees only a single catastrophe - incessantly piling ruin upon ruin, and hurling them at his feet. He would probably like to stay, waken the dead, and correct the devastation. But a storm is blowing from Paradise and, caught in his wings, it is so strong that he can no longer close them.
While the debris piles ever higher before his eyes, the storm drives him unhaltingly into the future - to which his back is turned.
That which we call Progress is this storm.
_from the series: A Brief US History, 1985 [18 non-digital, single-exposure, performed photomontages]
