An exhibition that questions the place and value of time in our contemporary capitalist system.
Waiting (L’attente) is an exhibition that delves into our intimate relationship with time, in particular time spent working, and the pivotal place it holds in our lives. The readings and diverse reimaginings of waiting proposed by the many artists included here show us attempts at understanding it and reckoning with its layered significance.
We just have to learn to manage our time better, it is often said. Time management will improve our productivity, enhance control, and ensure success in our lives. We are expected to maintain a savvy balance between (productive) time spent working and the “down-time” that we spend on ourselves. We have to capably procure our creature comforts, while also perfecting our personalities, which in turn manifest as our being-in-the-world, proof and proffering of the accomplished, gratified multitaskers we have become. It is also a given that every temporal unit of measurement – a week, a day, an hour, “just few minutes!” – can be accorded a monetary value. Indeed, much of our relationship with money is a function of mathematic calculations that are applied to units of time.
And so, we wait: to hear back about a job, an application, an appointment with some civil servant or another, or for some professional service. We savour our break time before getting back to work, or spend them in worry or dread. Sometimes, the primary activity of a given task is itself merely waiting. This very separation between periods of action and waiting can reflect class divisions as well: first in line (or relieved of having to wait in line at all) are the privileged ones; the rest of us have no choice but to stand, and wait.
Combining pre-existing and new artworks, as well as archival documents, Waiting provides a space for dialogue and reflection on granular time, as seemingly unspectacular as it is complex. Through the artists’ attentions and attempts, this exhibition shows us the analytical and creative elements of aesthetic experience, while holding space for subversion and critique. Only time will tell what great liberation we might enjoy when the time we have spent waiting is restored to us, and our latency is no longer controlled by outside forces.
In connection with FIG Projects reflections on labour: Surplus Value, for the 2019 Oslo Architecture Triennale; No Sweat, special issue of Harvard Design Magazine; Work / Labour – The Aesthetics of Resistance, proposal for Extra City in Antwerp and “On Production / Modern Times”, initial notes around such topic (2011-2013).
Curator: Fabrizio Gallanti
Artists: Jeremy Deller, K. Deepika, A. Kameshwaran, M. Sinduja, A. Thalamuthu, K. Padmapriya, Jean-Maxime Dufresne, Virginie Laganière, Antje Ehmann, Harun Farocki, Emmanuelle Léonard, Alain Parent
January 11, 2019 – February 23, 2019
https://galerie.uqam.ca/en/expositions/waiting/
