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Peter Weibel «The Theorem of the Identity Tritity»
Peter Weibel, «The Theorem of the Identity Tritity», 1974
Photograph: Schuster | © Peter Weibel


 Peter Weibel
«The Theorem of the Identity Tritity»

The tape begins by showing the face of Jesus Christ, painted by Piero della Francesca, the face of Nikolaus Lenau, the Austrian Romantic poet whose last years of life were spent in a lunatic asylum, and my own face. Then you see the depiction of Jesus Christ again, and hear the following quotation of Francesca: 'Form and content are like brother and sister in the venerable hall of space.' This is followed by the Lenau portrait, and his words: 'I myself am the poetry. My most selfly is itself the poetry.' And I myself say: 'My message throws everyone back on themselves.' I restore the dead faces to life and speech, so to speak, by superimposing over them my own face, and making faces of my own. The similarities and effects arising during this process are astonishing. Just as the faces have blended, the messages merge, too, now supplemented by Christ's 'Love Thy Neighbour as Thyself'. The theorem of identity is placed in question by the way the messages relativize one another.

 

Peter Weibel