Participation in the Present and the Spacing of Time: On Kawara, Nancy, Levinas

2018 Art inquiry. Recherches sur les arts  
This paper focuses on the close examination of the notions of presence, participation, and time in the conceptual art of On Kawara, in which the rhetorical figure of art works through the spacing of time. In this way, this conceptual art becomes a symbol of absolute creation -the creation of time and the participation in the eternal present, according to Jean-Luc Nancy's essay: The Technique of the Present: On On Kawara. Moreover, On Kawara's paintings explore the theme of being and are
more » ... ed around Martin Heidegger's concept of "throwness" in the world, as they convey the sense of being carried along by the events and the impetus of the world. The materiality of the loneliness of the self, which is crucial for this artistic project, is considered with reference to Emmanuel Levinas's thought and Samuel Beckett's ...but the clouds... Presence, participation, setting forth, setting in space are the main characteristics of a work of art. It exposes its existence here and now. It sets the present moment, it freezes the present moment, it stops for a moment the flow of time, says a contemporary French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy in his essay The Technique of the Present: On On Kawara. In this way, a work of art possesses a piece of time as it possesses a piece of space. It makes it permanent. Nancy emphasizes the meaning of a particular mode of production, exposition, and bringing forth of a work of art, which are the proper states and modes of being attributed to an artwork. Moreover, "what is exposed is placed under the order
doi:10.26485/ai/2018/20/4 fatcat:ekcaefepqjgddnyurmnyxftpi4