Being Mountains, Being Seas

About

Most of us sense time as a linear stream or flow of events, one succeeding another, but many argue that time is subjective and determined by the observer, meaning us, humans. Some are taking this further, claiming that actually we, the observers, create it. As Heidegger puts it, ”we do not exist inside time, we are time”. Hence, the relationship to the past is a present awareness of having been, which allows the past to exist in the present. The relationship to the future is the state of anticipating a potential possibility, task, or engagement. It is related to the human inclination for caring and being concerned, which causes ”getting ahead of oneself” when thinking of a pending occurrence. Therefore, this concern for a potential occurrence also allows the future to exist in the present. The present becomes an experience, which is qualitative instead of quantitative. This is one way of looking at it. Another can be more introspective, looking at the passage of time on both personal and social levels, and how desynchronized the two can be. Us against the generation of our parents, us against the ones born after 2000. And if we think about it, we do live in a reality where past, present and future are all available. There are people still living without technology, while some are spending their time on a space station. 

An interesting aspect about the perception of time is the fact that it is affected by emotions: fear dilates it, while happiness and having fun shortens it. These results have been found in studies on human reactions while watching various movies (horror, comedies, etc.) The power of moving images to condition the perception of time and space has been exploited since its inception. Watching the recent news, we have the sensation of an acceleration of events, so many things happening, not enough time to process everything (for example some journalists maintain that D. Trump deliberately employs this technique, by creating so much news in a very short span of time, making it very hard to keep up with).

Since it is an anniversary exhibition, this type of event forces us to look back into our past activity with a contemplative attitude towards our own existence and purpose, but also with anxiety for what there is to come.

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A cultural program cofinanced by The Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The program does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The Administration of the National Cultural Fund is not responsible for the content of the program or the manner in which the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding recipient.

Project supported by Cluj-Napoca City Hall and the Local Council.