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In the loving memory of my friend Elmar Thome, who waited all he could; and my dear father who could not.

So short an existence, this lapse we have to do something, to be someone, to engrave our print during the journey of our home through the cosmos; endless movement in which we so shortly are.

Basel, June 2006

Time

CD player and electronics on oxidized iron. 33x33 cm 2 min.

 

Each tick of a watch will never come back.

 

In the precision of a second, almost two people die and a bit more than four are born, increasing the earth's populating in 2.44 new individuals per second.

 

0.1 HIV new infections, 0.42 Hectares of forest are lost. 967 barrels of oil are pumped. 1.14 cars and 2.66 new computers are produced... incredibly contrasting with the rhythm of all other times.

Our planet was formed from the disc of gas and dust that surrounded the recently created sun 4600 crones ago. Since the first primitive organisms started to inhabit the oceans and the photosynthesis process began to fill the atmosphere with oxygen, creating the oxidising environment in which we live today, it took more than 4000 crones for the arrival of the first hominids. Our civilisation is less than three crones old. It’s easier to start to say three million years. Three million years of prehistory and some five thousand years of history. Such a slow process... in which the vast majority of individuals had just disappeared, like if they had never existed.

At each second, innumerable dreams are being lived. So many new expectations, so many frustrations, so many starts and endings, with something in between that we call existence. Life can be, at the same time, extraordinary and senseless. Living the best we can is the grand sense to be here, believing that at each of those ticks we can be better in some aspects, not all, but some... even knowing that most of us are going to be forgotten someday. However, we are 2.44 more each second, at each click... and my heart beats once. Once more... and at the same time once less. I don’t know... I have more and more questions each second.

The idea of ​​building cameras for specific situations, with a specific lens, focused for a single predetermined distance, without a viewfinder and with one single plate of film , metaphorically establishes a reflection on how unrepeatable, irreversible and fragile everything is.

The learning
 

Anja Gödicke, my assistant on her last day in my studio. One large format negative plate exposed 27 June 2006 and processed the day after, when she was already on her flight back to Berlin and later to her long trip through Africa.
Silver gelatin on cotton paper and oxidised iron.
50x50 cm

The suicide
 

Silver gelatin on cotton paper and oxidised iron. 50x50 cm

The pregnancy.

 

Laia, 30 weeks
Silver gelatin on cotton paper and oxidised iron. 50x50 cm

The delivery.

 

Laia, 41 weeks

Silver gelatin on cotton paper and oxidised iron. 50x50 cm

The start.

 

Roger, 90 seconds

Silver gelatin on cotton paper and oxidised iron. 50x50 cm

The old age.

 

Dear Paul Spieler and his paradise

Silver gelatin on barit paper and Paul's camera on oxidised iron. 58x68x24 cm

The knowledge


Photgraphy of the Montserrat library in Silver gelatin on cotton paper, oxidised iron plate, book and LEDs in wooden drawer. 35x70x15 cm

The dreaming


I was young, dreaming about exploring places, about having my own darkroom, saving for an enlarger. Now I can find one in the rubbish around the corner. I can buy, for barely 10 Euros in Los Encantes flea market, a camera like the one my grandmother gave me when I was 15.
Black and white negative projected by a rusted enlarger, mechanical timer, and oxidised iron. 110x100x80 cm

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Reminiscences


Black and white photo album, digitalized color slides on TFT screen, hard disks and electronics in an oxidised drawer. 38x70x26 cm

The illness.

 

Jennifer. Diagnostic with Multiple Sclerosis at the age of 18.

Two Silver gelatin on cotton paper mounted on each side of an oxidised iron plate hanging by gold wire. 150x50 cm

The death.


Silver gelatin print in an oxidised iron safe. 18x23x30 cm

Time


Clock and iron in oxidized iron safe 17x21x25 cm

The obsolescence


Silver gelatin on transparent acrylic plate, 1169 thermionic valves, mini light bulbs, and electronics in an oxidized iron box. 104x104x11 cm

The oxidation nº1


Controlled oxidation on iron powder in acrylic medium and black & white film sulphur toned in light box. 100x 95x5 cm

The oxidation nº2


Controlled oxidation on iron powder in acrylic medium and black & white film sulphur toned in light box. 100x195x5 cm

The oxidation nº3


Controlled oxidation on iron powder in acrylic medium, on wood. 100x195x5 cm

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The Primordial soup


3 minute video, screen and oxidised iron plate 50x50 cm

You’ll not be allowed to enter again


Audiovisual installation. 20 slides and sound in a dark camera. 2x2x2,5 m

To enter the camera, visitors must identify themselves and will not be allowed to enter a second time. Inside the dark chamber, each image is projected for just one second at random intervals.

Works in progress

 

The permanence
The accident

Luiz Simoes

artista contemporáneo
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