Chronic Times
To what extent have we learnt to come to terms with chronic circumstances, in other words, with circumstances that persist for an indeterminate period of time? Conversely, to what extent does the chronic, which co-determines our everyday lives, although in many ways this passes unnoticed or is not addressed as a distinct issue, put a specific resistivity on the agenda? Or, if not resistance, then at least independent modes of looking at and dealing with the situation that are appropriate to persistent and enduring states of affairs?
This edition addresses such questions in the realm of art – chronopolitical interrogations that form a kind of counter-topos to the logic of the acute and topical. Nation-state, capitalist and heteronormative structures are determined primarily by linear timelines, rooted in the idea of progression, of forging ahead to something better. At the same time, this linear model of progress also forms the frame or backdrop for conceptualisation of the event-based, the topical and the urgent. In contrast, chronic modes of observation evolve out of what is latent, or protracted, or develop out of elements that cannot be simply shaken off within quotidian circumstances. Rather than examining, for example, the war in the Balkans or the Aids crisis, the focus is instead on the “time afterwards” – although it is often not clear what exactly triggers these kinds of permanent states and whether these will draw to a close again. It is precisely this continuing indeterminacy that may possibly conceal surfeits that extend beyond what can currently be said and may perhaps contain the seeds of future developments.
Renate Lorenz, one of the co-initiators of this edition, examines the horizons and potentials of the chronic in her conversation with Mathias Danbolt and Elizabeth Freeman. Their discussion does not merely articulate the question of the extent to which this “promising temporality” is in a position to counterbalance the logic of the crisis (which continues to hold us captive) with another, more open understanding of time. Instead the debate is also extended to consider to what extent the chronic is suited to identify a locus of the political within and through artistic approaches, and perhaps also to share in articulating forms of queerness that elude normative, linear conceptual structures.
Sharon Hayes has long addressed unfolding forms of protest and resistance in her artistic practice. In her essay Hayes uses several parallel scenarios to look at the force of what are known as “arresting images” – historic images that exert an enduring pull and are present as constant companions in our imaginaries. To a large extent the focus here is also on how this kind of “arresting image” can play a part in a non-contemporaneity that is given a positive twist, in forms of anachronism that call to mind elements from the past that are unresolved or can be activated anew. A similar approach is adopted by Jelena Petrović, who, as an active member of the Living Archive project alliance, emphasises the non-linear, yet simultaneously resolutely chronopolitical character of this kind of archive work.
The contributions to Chronic Times endeavour, in many cases adopting a project-based approach, to trace the contours of this other form of temporality along with all its potential, which runs right through a diverse spectrum of art practices. The point of departure may be an outdated map, such as the one that Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh draws on when considering the Morocco–West Sahara conflict, which has become invisible. The object examined may also be a concrete physical gesture, as depicted by Elske Rosenfeld in her glossary on political revolts in the recent past. Or it may pertain to specific forms of historical over-writing and ways that memory is erased, as Giulia Cilla highlights through the example of a building in Montevideo, which was once used as a prison and is now a shopping mall.
Alongside this, various pieces seek almost meta-textually to probe the policy of reading, remembering and forgetting. In their text for collective reading, reprinted here, the group Read-In demonstrates how historical memory is constituted when memorising and learning by heart takes the place of established written transmission. Xiaoyan Men engages with the resonance of absence, exploring a phenomenon in her photographic practice that assumes a rather shadowy existence against the backdrop of the Chinese economic boom: the women who are often left behind alone in the villages. Men’s piece is structured as a report of direct experiences on the spot – again, a format that offers scope to reveal the latent and persistent which often vanish behind the sensational and spectacular.
Chronic Times was produced as a cooperation with the PhD-in-Practice programme of the Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna), which has been conducting research on “Chronopolitics” for more than three years. The Akademie der bildenden Künste provided financial support for the thematic section and we would like to express our particular thanks to everyone involved. In particular we would like to mention Anette Baldauf and Renate Lorenz’ initiative, editorial input from Till Gathmann, Annette Krauss and Elske Rosenfeld, as well as support from Andrea B. Braidt; this edition would not have been possible in this form without their committed involvement.