“Tears of Theia*” is a prequel to our ongoing series “Creating wilderness”. “Tears of Theia*” is a series of black and white photos and videos about the beginning of life on earth. It is a quest for the source of life and a tribute to the omnipresent most beautiful, valuable and precious element we have on earth: water. Life on earth could not have started without it.
*4.4 billion years ago Earth collided with a Mars-sized hypothised body named Theia. Theia came from the outer solar system, and delivered most of Earth's water, while also creating the moon.
We call the water drops Tears off Theia*, because the waters of the then formed oceans are salty as tears and because the origin of life, death and suffering are an inseparable part of that life. Two years ago I lost my sister to life. It had a huge impact on me. Tears that Theia has shed on our earth seem to carry a promise that life not only originated from this impact, but may also be passed on by that same water. I hold on to this thought: The force with which water flows and moves, in whatever form, brings new life into it.
The tears of Theia are a peek into the longue duree of the geographic history of the earth and a shed tear for the very short history of our own life on this planet. This series “Tears of Theia” is a "Respice post te! Hominem te memento!" (Look behind you! Remember you are only human!) . A call to preserve the earth for all subsequent generations of all life on this beautiful planet.