Wings of Desire Program - American Repertory Theater

A Klee painting named Angelus Novus (right)shows an angel looking as though he is aboutto move away from something he is fixedlycontemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouthis open, his wings are spread. This is how onepictures the angel of history. His face is turnedtoward the past. Where we perceive a chain ofevents, he sees one single catastrophe whichkeeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front ofhis feet. The angel would like to stay, awakenthe dead, and make whole what has beensmashed. But a storm is blowing in fromParadise; it has got caught in his wings withsuch a violence that the angel can no longerclose them. The storm irresistibly propels himinto the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before himgrows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.–– Walter Benjamin, “On the Concept of History”And we, spectators always, everywhere,looking at, never out of, everything!–– Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies, trans. Leishman and SpenderEven though the angels have been watching and listening to people for such along time, there are still many things they don’t understand. For example, theydon’t know and can’t imagine what colors are. Or tastes and smells. They canguess what feelings are, but they can’t experience them directly. As our angelsare basically loving and good, they can’t imagine things like fear, jealousy, envyor hatred. They are familiar with theirexpression, but not with the thingsthemselves. They are naturally curiousand would like to learn more, andfrom time to time they feel a pang ofregret at missing out on all thesethings, not knowing what it’s like throwinga stone, or what water or fire arelike, or picking up some object in yourhand, let alone touching or kissing afellow human being. All these thingsescape the angels. They are pureCONSCIOUSNESS, fuller and morecomprehending than mankind, but alsopoorer. The physical and sensualworld is reserved for human beings. Itis the privilege of mortality, and deathis its price.Aerialist Mam Smith— Wim Wenders, from the firsttreatment for Wings of Desire