Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Wolverhampton
‘No Time’: Contemporaneity between Time Pressure and Procrastination
Brief Description
The essay represents Penzin’s current research into the relationship between art and ‘contemporary temporality’ and its social-political context, and contributes to the current debate about the notion of contemporaneity. The essay is partly based on different versions of a conference paper, which was delivered at an international summer school at Baltic Art Center (Sweden, 2011), at the Summer School of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2011 and 2013, with students of the Royal College of Art and Goldsmiths), as well as a presentations at the art-centre Matadero in Madrid (2011) and the ‘Slow Time’ round table at the 5th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2013).
Research Rationale
The essay raises the problem of a ‘contemporary temporality’ in its relation to cultural production. Two quite obvious and contrasted poles distinguish this temporality: ‘time pressure’ (no time to do anything) and ‘procrastination’ (plenty of time spent without doing anything valuable). The research asks about the driving social-political forces, which produce this form of temporality. It also explores consequences of this twofold temporality for contemporary art practice, suggesting the idea of ‘no-time-based-art’.
Strategies Undertaken
The research strategy consists of combining a political-theological genealogy of contemporary constellations and concepts (for example, practiced by Giorgio Agamben) and the recent discussions on late capitalism and temporality. The essay suggests that the ancient theological formula which links time with Creation (if there is no time, there is no creation) can be read in the present day as well, including in relation to its anthropological and aesthetic dimensions, but outside its direct theological sense. The essay argues this position through a critical analysis of Moishe Postone, Fredric Jameson, Antonio Negri, Franco Berardi, Maurizio Lazzarato and Boris Groys. The contemporary ‘society without time’ (Lazzarato) also affects art production, creating strange effects of ‘no-time-based-art’.
