Ans Mertens: The (Dis)Appearance of Time (On Exhibiting kairos)

Ans Mertens, PhD in the Arts

The (Dis) Appearance of Time questions the exhibition as a moment of "kairos" or interruption in an accelerating visual culture. The idea of kairos connects to Hannah Arendt's ‘thinking’. According to Arendt ‘thinking’ has its own inner time course and searches for meaning instead of knowledge. Departing from the film installation as a method to create a friction in the perception of time, I aim at causing a friction that not only favours the aesthetic experience or interpretation of a work, but also encourages lingering – according to Byung-Chul Han the human capacity that distinguishes thinking from calculating.

In The (Dis) Appearance of Time, I therefore ask the question of how the exhibition, and the film installation in particular, can create an experience of time that contributes to the hesitations necessary to evoke sensitive thinking.

• Supervisor: Dr. Nicola Setari (KU Leuven / LUCA)

Research unit Intermedia

Duration: 2020 - 2024