This exhibition presented poetic work by twelve international artists. Kairos Time was the final presentation of the Master Fine Art of the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam. The curator who brought the works together was Matteo Lucchetti.
Kairos
Kairos, like Kronos, is an ancient Greek word for 'time'. Where Kronos points to chronological time, Kairos alludes to the right moment: the moment to take action and seize opportunities (or lose them). In this way, Kairos influences the course of events. It is an indefinite moment in which anything can happen and possibilities can become reality – if they are noticed. The exhibition embraced this idea of time as a space of potential that lies in everyday circumstances, which the artist can use in his or her work.
Opportunists
If we see being an artist as the ability to seize favorable moments, one might wonder how much opportunism is needed to be an artist. In 'A Grammar of the Multitude' (2004), philosopher Paolo Virno analyses post-Fordism. He describes opportunists as people “who confront a stream of ever-interchangeable possibilities, and who open themselves to all of them.” By stripping the term of negative connotations, Virno makes it a topical description of the contemporary working person, for whom qualities such as openness, flexibility and an unprejudiced attitude are important. These are precisely the qualities that are often associated with the artist.
Kairos Time reflected the capacity of the young artists of the Piet Zwart Institute to transform arbitrary circumstances into meaningful observations or speculative explorations.
Playing with recreation
Maarten Bels 'Café Bel' was a real bar, which also offered space for various events. His starting point was the belief that every social space is a potential space for art.
Perri Mackenzie creates an installation based on her observations of a smoking area: a claustrophobic place defined by temporary, involuntary encounters that arise from addiction.
Uit Christian HansenThe vinyl records featured recordings of instruments composed by the artist (for example the Architar, if it Keyboard Skateboard).
Transgressions
Machteld Rullens video 'Hardcore' documented how the artist crossed the city centre of The Hague, when it was cordoned off with various security measures during the 2014 Nuclear Summit.
Philipp Ewe crossed inner boundaries during a trip on Rotterdam public transport and a hitchhiking experience in a truck.
Perspective shifts
Micha Zweifel reflected on the period in which he shared a living and working space in the countryside with a group of artist friends. He wondered how a community can function when its members seem less and less capable of performing social functions?
The videos of Hannah James the performative elements illuminated interiors and other architectural spaces, thereby breaking through the routine way we view and inhabit spaces.
Ann Maria Healy created an installation from waste material, inhabited by three mythical figures who recited song lyrics written by her.
Rose Wijma's sound system'Jacobson's Organ' referred to the cells for smell present in reptiles. Her spoken texts were activated by the presence of an audience.
Graham Kelly played with perception by filtering footage through a fan and reflecting it off mirrored sunglasses.
Liz Allen make videos about desire and its political and economic interpretation. Her video First Contact was about Albert Heijn advertising and Pridest about the Gay Pride of Amsterdam.