Wasting Time
Volume 1. The Nature Edition
Mit Borrás, Lucas Gutierrez, Conny Maier, Patrick McCumiskey, Andrea Nicolò, Matthias Planitzer, Gonzalo Reyes Araous, Kama Sokolnicka

Curated by Fousieh Mobayen and Sarie Nijboer

The pursuit of fast growth is changing the way we use and perceive time. Our current perception of time is that it is something that we can control, manipulate and simulate. We live in ever more productive society, that is constantly surrounded and framed in the context of time.

In the first Volume of the exhibition series Wasting Time a selected group of mostly Berlin based artists is questioning the meaning of time as an exorable medium of change, forced by (artificial) nature. In various constellations the artists show a shared interest in the notions of time, and the different ways in which the perception of time can be manipulated through nature. Current theories about time-production play a significant role inside the exhibition as well as the reflexive treatment of time and its reception as a cultural dominated construction

At the end of last year three biologists got awarded the Nobel Prize for their research on the control of circadian rhythms. Their study was to focus on how organisms track time and adapt to its cycles. Which becomes a great example of how the importance of time and its affect to our hormonal systems and health has been acknowledged. Right now, with the increased influence by digital technologies we enter a new context in which time can exist. Our demands to constantly produce, and stay productive has resulted in new meanings of the perception and concept of time and nature.

The exhibition series Wasting Time addresses various issues of time and is curated by Fousieh Mobayen and Sarie Nijboer. We like to see Wasting Time as a place for thought, a place where time does not exist. The title refers to the contemporary idea that lies behind ‘wasting time’ as an unproductive activity. In this context the word Volume brings us back to the idea that it can be ongoing, never-ending, and at the same time refers to our productive society, that we are able to produce and manipulate systems of nature in order to change time, through digital technologies. By questioning the way we use and perceive time in an ever changing, faster growing society we hope to elaborate the consciousness and develop a new thinking towards time.