monuments

“Monuments” is a series of photographs of manufactured and traditional weapons from various countries. 1:1 scale on 4x5" film, 120x80 cm lambda prints. These lethal attachments are affixed to the spurs of fighting cocks. During his stay in New Mexico among the Hopi in 1896, art historian Aby Warburg discovered such spurs at a market. Based on his concept of the “formula of pathos” (Pathosformel), he discerned a continuity (Nachleben) between the shapes of these spurs and pre-Columbian arrowheads. Through his unfinished project The Mnemosyne Atlas and a colossal analysis of images, he sought to “map the afterlife (Nachleben) and the spatio-temporal migrations (Wanderungen) of pathos formulas, which he regarded as the gestural and dynamic expression of a certain number of prototypical emotions and affects engraved in the collective memory.” Antonio Somaini. Dictionary of Film Iconology, PUL.