Chapter #3: Variations on Time

In the third chapter Variations on Time, Karma Ltd. Extended presents the work of female artists who deal with non-anthropocentric, organic tenses and question the traditional time patterns. By providing access to forms of knowledge and understandings that the dominant linear and anthropocentric time culture suppresses, they invite us to imagine different ways of interspecies co-existence and counter-narratives.

The dominant model of time in contemporary Western societies is known as a linear, goal-oriented time: a ‘mechanical’ time that can be measured, owned, used, bought and sold by humans. Thinkers such as the geologist James Hutton, the author of the Deep Time theory, have described that the age of the Earth has been determined to be around 4.55 billion years. Humans have been around for an extremely short period on this geological timeline. In the third chapter Variations on Time, Karma Ltd. Extended presents the work of artists who deal with non-anthropocentric, organic tenses and question the traditional time patterns. By providing access to forms of knowledge and understandings that the dominant linear and anthropocentric time culture suppresses, they invite us to imagine different ways of interspecies co-existence and counter-narratives.

Working with sound, film, performance, and objects, Kapwani Kiwanga (born in Canada, based in Paris) relies on extensive research to transform raw information into investigations of historical narratives and their impact on political, social, and community formation. Her work focuses on sites specific to Africa and the African diaspora, examining how certain events expand and unfold into popular and folk narratives, and revealing how these stories take shape in objects and oral histories. Trained as an anthropologist, Kiwanga performs this role in her artistic practice, using historical information to construct narratives about groups of people. Kiwanga is not only invested in the past but also the future, creating speculative dossiers from future civilizations to reflect on the impact of historical events.

In the series Subduction Studies (2015-2017), Kiwanga observes the space between Earths continents, specifically Africa and Europe. The speculation of Pangaea Ultima suggests a supercontinent occurring again, which will see Europe slipping underneath Africa. This theory inspired Kiwanga to take photographs at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris of rock specimens from the Northern coast of Africa and Spain. By folding the photographs together, she not only demonstrates a new form but also a new geopolitical perspective, where two continents and their migrants would be geographically connected.

Kiwanga is the winner of the 2018 Frieze Artist Award. Her work has been shown at the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles, 2018), Tate Liverpool (2017) and Portikus (Frankfurt, 2017), among others. Kiwanga’s performances have been presented at Documenta 14 (Athens, 2017), Momentum 9 (Oslo, 2017); Tate Modern (London, 2014) and Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2014), among others.

OPENING: 27.04.2018 @ACUD GALERIE – 18:00 with Kapwani Kiwanga and Susanne M. Winterling.
SUNDAY MATINEE ABOUT VARIATIONS ON TIME: 06.05.2018 @ ACUD STUDIO 11:00- 14:00
Artist talk: Susanne M. Winterling
Screening: “The Sun Ra Repatriation Project” by Kapwani Kiwanga
Performance: Emilija Skarnulyte

Acud Galerie
Veteranenstraße 21
10119 Berlin