Time, Forward!

Time,Forward!, a new project by Omar Kholeif, Maria Kramar and V–A–C, questions the notion and function of time and how it relates to new forms of consciousness, action and sight in the twenty-first century. The title is also an ironic take on the revolutionary 20th century Soviet slogan. Time, Forward! became a celebrated novel, film and a tune that was very popular across decades and which is still highly recognisable in Russia today. While its original use proposed an optimistic and progressive view of acceleration, the exhibition takes a more critical position towards the celebration of velocity and compression of time in the digital age.

Time,Forward! presents new commissions from emerging and acclaimed international artists. At the very beginning of the project, the artists all gathered in Venice to discuss their ideas about time and the speed and breadth of knowledge turnover in today’s world, responding to each other attitudes and ideas. When our lives are deluged with images, tweets, real and fake information, can we embrace tools or positions of resistance that will help us improve our living conditions?

The project will occupy the entire space of V–A–C Zattere and feature new works exploring the theme from different perspectives: Walid Raad’s Foreword to the Arabic Edition I and II offers an insight into the thinking around museums of the future; To Live And Think Like Pigs, a new single channel video by James Richards shifts between the erotic, the scientific and the mechanic, to visualise our relationships with technology; Inside Aggregate States of Matters, a science fiction film by Rosa Barba, searches for ways in which landscape and memory connect; Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige meditate on the state of the Earth through their multi-layered project Unconformities; Alexandra Sukhareva with the participation of poet Eugenia Suslova studies glass and its stages of decay with the work Ligeia; Daria Irincheeva’s work Anthropocene Markers investigates human impact on the Earth’s ecosystems; Kirill Savchenkov considers the psychological effects that today’s media can have on us with
his sound and sculptural installation Then a Kiss is not a Kiss; multimedia installation Beyond the Wave Epoch by Haroon Mirza, speculates on a future where science has accelerated beyond our wildest imaginations; Trevor Paglen exposes and questions machine learning methods and materials with the work From Apple to Kleptomaniac; Adam Linder presents She Clockwork, a psycho-physical experience through performance and objects investigating a language-based structure of time; Valentin Fetisov’s interactive installation Call to Action compares clickbait and digital marketing techniques to more traditional psychological theories; Where Dogs Run take us on an architectural exploration into algorithmic cityscapes with the installation Zero City; Aleksandra Domanovic’s Untitled (AD 2019) speculates on ideas of time travel and immortality; and Christopher Kulendran Thomas in collaboration with curator Annika Kuhlmann present Being Human, a multimedia installation exploring the future of human rights, the links between creativity, sovereignty and technology, in a world where machine-learning could influence new forms of governance.

Artists: Rosa Barba, Aleksandra Domanović, Valentin Fetisov, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Daria Irincheeva, Alexandra Sukhareva, Christopher Kulendran Thomas in collaboration with Annika Kuhlmann, Adam Linder, Haroon Mirza, Trevor Paglen, Walid Raad, James Richards, Kirill Savchenkov, Where Dogs Run