<back tu archive		February 8 – April 5, 2012 Adam and Eve and the Apple Affair
Albrecht Dürer (1471 - 1528) Adam and Eve 1504 Engraving Collection of Prints and Drawings ETH Zurich Marcantonio Raimondi (ca. 1480 - ca. 1527) Adam and Eve ca. 1510 Engraving Collection of Prints and Drawings ETH Zurich		In his book Die Intrige. Theorie und Praxis der Hinterlist [The intrigue. The theory and practice of deceit] (2006) Peter von Matt writes in a chapter on dramaturgy of a criminal act undertaken by two, providing the ‘apple affair’ in Paradise as an example. "Adam and Eve represent a primordial form of the couple as offenders. They may not eat from the tree but they do it anyway. Both take a bite … but when and how do they bite, and who bites first, and why does the other do it too? An examination of images of Adam and Eve through the history of art shows that the apple is always there in the painting and on the plate, but time and again differently." The perpetrators man, woman and snake also behave differently, time and again. The crime is committed both collectively and individually, and "both aspects must be visible in the image, but as such are also manifested there." Apart from the daunting question of guilt, this finger-pointing is fascinating to look at – and a good reason to gather these images together in an exhibition. With a few exceptions only the sinful act is presented, that momentous instant when our first parents transgress against the only restriction in their paradisiac existence. The course of events principally involves never-changing elements: the close connection between the taking, giving, receiving and acceptance of the apple. How is the couple represented? In innocent nakedness, before the problematic drama surrounding the taboo of human nudity begins, ie. before lascivious potential overtakes the self-evidently God-given state? Or does the image provide a hint of what is to come – a preview of the pair’s growing consciousness that they are not perfect, but naked? How do they react? Sometimes they are ashamed, sometimes they are rather coquettish, and sometimes they blend the two in what becomes a game of deception between concrete concealment and metaphorical references. At times, the explicit becomes ambiguous. Usually, of course, it is Eve who offers the apple, exercising her role as femme fatale. Actually she was originally regarded as God’s second, weaker creation, made subordinate to God’s first-born to protect her against the devil’s influence. When it came to the test, however, the progenitor of the ‘strong sex’ revealed himself as an incautious or hesitant, bumbling victim. Both participate in the sin. Is it not, however, sometimes Eve, sometimes Adam who is guilty? For their exile from Eden this naturally changes nothing. Opening: Tuesday, February 7, 2012, 6 pm For further information: (> e-mail)
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