Prinzip Hoffnung

The first photograph of the three-part work »Prinzip Hoffnung« [Principle of Hope] from the series »Ontologische Sprünge« [Ontological Jumps] shows a burning sheet of paper fixed in a typewriter. No inflammatory poem is being written, the empty sheet of paper in the typewriter is itself in flames. The second photograph shows the burnt remains of the sheet of paper. In the third photograph there is a leap in the material: the photographic image of the fire has jumped from the photograph to the real carrier material, the paper, and has burned the real photographic paper. In this and other photographic works created at the same time, Peter Weibel deals with the relationship between photography and the photographed object, with the ontological jump between image and reality. The title of the photo sequence quotes one of the major works of the philosopher Ernst Bloch (1885–1977).