"Genius Albus Genius Ater"

2009

2 photographic prints on paper, 100x70 cm each

"In time, Genius took on a twofold aspect and an ethical coloration. The sources - influenced, perhaps, by the Greek theme of the two daimons within each man - speak of a good genius and a bad genius, of a white (albus) and a black (ater) one. The first pushes and coaxes us toward good; the second corrupts us and inclines us toward evil. Horace is no doubt right to suggest that there is, in reality, one Genius who changes - by turns candid and shadowy, sometimes wise and sometimes depraved. In other words, what changes is not Genius but our relationship to him, turning from luminous and clear to shadowy and opaque. Our own vital principle, the companion who orients our existence and renders it amiable, is then suddenly transformed into a kind of silent, hidden outlaw who follows our every move like a shadow and secretly conspires against us."

Giorgio Agamben, Profanations, Zone Books, New York 2007