Event poster advertising an art exhibition titled "Figures d'un monde en sursis" at La Fabrik, Aubenas, from January 30 to March 13, with artist Matthias Koch.

An exhibition by Matthias Koch, in collaboration with philosopher Claude Molzino
January 30 → March 13, 2026

Monday and Tuesday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m.

La Ferme, 3B avenue de Bellande, 07200 AUBENAS

Figures of a World

on Borrowed Time

A journey through the world’s fragilities. Images where reality wavers, where forms hold together — just barely. Texts by Claude Molzino accompany the photographs like a breath, a thinking voice that sheds light on areas of shadow and attention.

Black and white aerial view of a densely packed urban neighborhood with many small houses, roads, and some green spaces.

Close-up of a woman with curly hair lying on a bed, with a metal box or shelf in the background, in a black-and-white setting.

With Figures of a World on Borrowed Time, photographer Matthias Koch, in collaboration with philosopher Claude Molzino, offers a sensitive passage through the fragilities of the contemporary world.

This exhibition brings into dialogue a stripped-down photographic writing and a form of thinking that questions zones of inattention, silences, what disappears yet keeps insisting. The images and the texts do not comment on each other; they respond to one another. They open a space where unease, lucidity, and beauty intermingle — a space where what still holds reveals itself with renewed intensity.

The photographs do not show the catastrophe, but its contour: landscapes under tension, bodies caught in waiting, the persistence of the living in its most vulnerable form.
Claude Molzino’s thought, expressed in fragments, illuminates and amplifies this suspended world; it offers another way of seeing, from a place where philosophy meets lived experience.

Artistic Approach

Figures of a World on Borrowed Time is rooted in an approach where photographic imagery meets phenomenological thought. For Matthias Koch, photographing means allowing a reality to emerge, rather than imposing a form upon it. Photography becomes an encounter with the world — an act of presence.

Claude Molzino’s contribution brings forth a second layer of interpretation: a reflection on our era, on what wavers, on what endures despite everything. Her language, both precise and sensitive, accompanies the images like a breath: it does not explain them — it extends them, opening their horizon.

Together, the texts and images compose a discontinuous narrative, a kind of poetic cartography of our time.

Matthias Koch — Photographer

Based in Ardèche, Matthias Koch develops a photographic practice where landscape, memory, phenomenology, and the poetry of the real intersect. His series — Metamorphosis, Twelve Hours, Todtnauberg, Unheimlichkeit, and Figures of a World on Borrowed Time — explore the tensions of our era, the transformation of beings, and the fragility of forms of life.

Claude Molzino — Philosopher

A certified and PhD-holding philosopher, Claude Molzino lives in Paris. She has notably published with Manucius Editions La vérité en Musique (2013), Journal du Japon (2016), and Passer sans fin (2020).

A black and white photo of a rocky hill or mountain, with a rough textured surface and scant vegetation at the top.

Group of people standing on rocky terrain, some looking through binoculars, with a helicopter flying in the sky above.

Nighttime cityscape with tall buildings and illuminated windows, black and white photo

An elderly woman with light-colored skin and gray hair looking down at a table with her arms crossed. She is wearing a black top and rings on her fingers. The table has a textured tablecloth and some papers or folders on it.

Black and white close-up of a woman's face with her hand resting on her forehead, eyes closed, conveying a sense of distress or contemplation.

A religious painting depicting the body of Jesus Christ after his crucifixion, surrounded by mourners including the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene, with a saint or clergy member on the far left, against a gold background with Latin inscriptions.

Aerial view of a densely packed urban neighborhood with numerous houses and streets, in black and white.

Black and white photograph of urban buildings with a cloudy sky, featuring a wall with the year '1914' painted on it.

A black and white photograph of a textured surface that appears to be a gravel terrain, extending towards a horizon with a dark sky above.

A house covered in snow, with snow on the roof and ground, trees in the background, and dark clouds in the sky.

A weathered, concrete bunker partially buried in sand and surrounded by tall grass, under an overcast sky.

Child smiling and covering their eyes with hands standing in front of a large, partially built house at night.

Empty playground equipment on a beach at night, including swings and a tall structure with signs, under a dark sky.

A black and white photograph of a playground structure, featuring a wall in the foreground with a vertical post and a horizontal wooden bar with hanging chains, trees in the background, and the roof of a building on the right side.

Black and white photo of a wooden fence with two swings hanging from the top beam.

Black and white photo of a cornfield with a dirt path running through the middle

Black and white photo of a suburban neighborhood with houses, leafless trees, a dirt pathway, and cloudy sky.

A black and white photo of an empty parking lot with a single tree in a landscaped island in the center, and a large, plain building in the background under a sky with wispy clouds.

Close-up of a black and white image showing a person's curly hair and a portion of a white countertop or surface with a gray appliance or box on the left side.

Black and white photo of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, Germany, showing concrete blocks of varying heights arranged in a grid pattern.

Black and white photograph of a man in a Nazi uniform holding a girl, and a woman holding another girl. Both girls are smiling and wearing plaid dresses.

Black and white photo of a fluffy cat lying on its back on a dark surface

A small, wet dog lying on its side on a rocky surface, surrounded by fallen leaves, in black and white.

Black and white photo of a dog tied to a rope near a boat on a dirt ground, with an urban background of buildings and cloudy sky.

Black and white photo of an abandoned, unfinished multi-story building in a desolate landscape with overgrown grass and a dirt road.

Three young girls sitting outdoors at a wooden table, two wearing sunglasses and one reading a book, black and white photo.

Black and white photo of an old stone structure with a small arched window and a door, located next to a cornfield under a dark sky.

Book cover with title in French, featuring a photograph of a window with flowers in a vase on the sill. The author names are Claude Molzino and Matthias Koch, and the publisher is L'Harmattan.

Let us look at the world as it is, without complacency or hostility, and try to understand where we stand.

This is what this essay proposes, built as a series of dialogues: between the eye and the mind, for philosophy and photography illuminate one another in order to shape an understanding of a world whose troubling fragility no one can ignore. It is also a dialogue between yesterday and today, between Heidegger and Günther Anders. If these images offer an embodied vision of the present, the conversation with contemporary or past thinkers that accompanies them seeks to honor the ever-living relevance of all true philosophy.

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