Time 0

Object: Exhibition / Location: Abbaye de Neumünster, Luxembourg / Duration: 12.11.20 - 28.02.21

The “time zero” title of Paul Kirps’ first photo exhibition refers to a Polaroid film marketed in 1980, which considerably reduced the time needed for a photo to materialise. Above all, it marks a beginning, a beginning of a new era.

Instant photography–which Paul Kirps has been experimenting with for two years–takes the artist out of the studio and into direct contact with the world. “Time 0” presents a series of 96 Polaroids taken in New York, Barcelona, Lisbon, Palma de Mallorca, Arlon and Brussels. Other pictures show Merl, Differdange, Esch-sur-Alzette or Kirchberg and the city centre of Luxembourg during the first Lockdown. Devoid of people, these spaces highlight all the more forcefully the traces left by human activity through elements of architecture, infrastructure, construction and transport.

The Polaroid SX70 instant camera used by Paul Kirps to create the pictures is a legend in its own right. Invented by the scientist and founder of Polaroid, Edwin H. Land, it was the first instant single lens reflex camera ever made, allowing to capture exactly what could be seen through with a viewfinder and with a glass lens offering a high photographic quality.