Time-lapse describes a photographic technique in which pictures are taken at long intervals between each frame. Time-lapse, as a process of delaying or prolongation constructs an obviously accelerated artificial effect by synchronizing a 24 frame per second playback speed, which typically creates the illusion of real-time movement in human visual perception. Time-lapse therefore manipulates an illusionary reality to achieve yet another level of syntheticity – a virtual reality as opposed to the “reality” arrived at by simulation.
Time presents itself by movement, which is the continuous covering of space. In space where movement unfolds abound the actions and happenings of distinct progression, that of heterogeneity. In timelapse, through the drastic slowing down of speed in space, in between the delays and elongation for the finale of speediness and continuity, elasticity metamorphoses into virtuality, transcending ordinary perception of the temporal and the spatial, creating memory in a succession of variations.
By metaphorically invoking the photographic terminology in the spirit of Bergsonian / Deleuzian time-movement interpretation as inspiration, the exhibition Timelapse in which a dozen artists from both Switzerland and China will participate, attempts to examine the fundamental constituent of digital media: the concept of time and its embodiment in space, its evocation of passage and memory, its movement of differentiation and its state of representation in diverse formal grammars to reveal the social implications of the fast in the disguise of the slow, the multiplicity in temporality and disparity in spatiality, both psychologically and geographically, stirring up a desire to scrutinize the nuances and ramifications in regards to the construct of cultural being in the disparate framework of time in distance and space in locality and the potential collapse of such time-space duality.
Although congenial in their technological outlook, the Chinese artists often invoke in their work a narrative approach imbued with subtle social critique, which reflects the influx of great social changes and transformations in contemporary China. Works by Swiss artists, on the other hand, tend to have a particular interest in the fundamental shift that digital media has engendered in reframing our perception of time and space, stylistically abstract and austere, prompting a sense of epistemological urgency.
This project is part of the exchange and cooperation programme "Swiss Chinese Explorations"of Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council. This exhibition will be a traveling show with one venue in China (The National Art Museum of China) and one venue in Switzerland (Centre Pasqu’Art, Biel). A bilingual catalogue of English and Chinese is planned to accompany the exhibition.
