Henning Christiansen
1969-00-00
Author/Key figure
Jochen Gerz
Document content
Awaiting summary
Transcription
Some people are troubled by the fact that China exploded its first atomic bomb 1964, others believe that the invasion of aliens is facing them soon. Others again reason that the general frustration, hate and agression that has become part of the civilized world is due to the impossibility of starting new wars other than those destroying the planet and that revolution like war fails to procure a solution since all profound change of civilization (i.e. mental progression) threatens the human race with extinction.
Some people think that their anxiety and uneasiness is due to their growing incapacity to throw away, to destroy ancient relics of their life which now burden them. These people consider that their presence, their activity and spontaneity is spoiled by a conditioning lot of past and before they would recover the pleasures of action they would have to get rid of all these substitutes of their ’ego’ which are often older than they.
Yet these people admit easily that they must derive some kind of pleasure from preserving those tedious things, aged moments, pasts.
So what is proposed here is to change you into someone who can forget,
Who can put whatever he wants to get rid of into a transparent bag of plastic.
This, evidently, can be as different and incredible things as photographs, wedding rings, watches, letters, Passports, flowers, sign-posts, poems, pigeons and many more things that only you can know of.
Whatever is put into the transparent bag will no longer belong to you.
All these traces from the past, this ’handwriting’ with its oppressive weight will be taken away from you. Life would then be your own creation and defined as whatever you choose to keep outside of the transparent bag.
You are asked to send the transparent bag with its content back to:
Editions AGENTZIA
25, rue Vandamme
75 PARIS 14°, France.
Your bag will closed at Paris and edited by AGENTZIA in a forthcoming collection entitled :
IS THERE LIFE ON EARTH?
© 1969 London, Nice, Basel, Avignon, München, Montevideo, Zürich, Swansee, etc. - AGENTZIA, Jochen GERZ
