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HOW LONG IS NOW, 1997, Globalodromia, East Facade of Tacheles, Berlin 2006-2019
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How long is now? The more we approach this question, the more it raises new questions and the less it becomes tangible and answerable. What is Now? How long does Now last? Is there Now at all? And if yes, where is it, where does it manifest? In the space, in ourselves or somewhere else?
The Now that occurs in space and in the environment is just a Now information that travels to a certain place in our brain. Even if this Now passes through our body (including the brain), it remains a traveling Now information. In addition, this traveling Now information needs different lengths of time to reach its destination. Even if the Now information needs very short time to reach its destination, regardless of that, it takes time. And this fact opens the question: Do we live in the past?
There should be a space (in the brain) where Now actually happens, and that’s the N.T.S. (now-time-space). Unfortunately we cannot experience this Now-time but only the Now information!
Each human brain works differently and at different speeds. Are we aloud to talk about only one Now or should we rather take in consideration different Now-s? If time is a human construct, that means there is no past and no future and of course no Now. The question of where Now happens is very close to another question – where is I (myself) situated?
Since there are still no exact answers to the questions inter alia, where Now is manifesting and how long Now actually lasts, HOW LONG IS NOW cannot be just a question, but a question, answer and statement at the same time.
Formation of the work and previous presentations
The question HOW LONG IS NOW was for the first time presented as an artwork in 1997 in the Tacheles Werkschau, from the Globalodromia FILOART. This work was conceived and realized as a light installation. A black cube from which letters of light were emerging. Light is a temporary and immaterial medium, and the sentence in light was transporting the question into space and time. Three years later, HOW LONG IS NOW was shown in the FILOART groups show Implosion at the Art House Tacheles (2000). This work took a central place in this exhibition. It shone out of the dark space of the Blauer Salon and drew visitors to sink into the question of NOW, to think about and discuss it. In 2001, at the Kosova National Art Gallery in Pristina, HOW LONG IS NOW took part in an exhibition titled NOW. Here was the work presented as a mural. It was placed immediately on the front wall of the entrance hall. The first thing that the visitors of this exhibition had to be faced with was: the question. In 2004, this work was shown as a light installation at Galerie 35 in Simon-Dach-Street in Berlin. The visual presentation of the work was extended from the interior of the gallery over the very busy nightlife street to the opposite residential building. On the one hand, the work was visible from different perspectives thus in several layers and higher complexity, and on the other it was related to the outer space and a broader public. From the back wall opening of the completely dark and empty gallery space, the rays of a light projection where hitting the front glass of the gallery and the light was splitting over three levels:
Level 1. The direct projection onto the window glass pane of the gallery. Part of the light remained visible on the glass pane.
Level 2. From the glass pane of the gallery one part of the light was reflected into the inner wall of the gallery.
Level 3. The rays of light that continued through the glass pane to the facade of the opposite building.
On all three levels the viewer could read the sentence HOW LONG IS NOW in light letters. But where is Now? If we add the slide projection as one plane of the work and the lens of the projector as another plane, then we have five different levels. The work was thus to be perceived on five different levels. Nevertheless, none of the observers could experience the true Now.
The Levels of the Projection
HOW LONG IS NOW, 2004, Globalodromia, Light installation, Galerie 35, Berlin
After almost ten years, in 2006, the work returned to the place where it was first made (1997). This time not as a light installation in the interior of the Kunsthaus Tacheles, but as a wall work/mural on its bare eastern exterior (Exhibition Akrotia). HOW LONG IS NOW stands there in black letters on a white wall surface of 14 m x 12 m. In a very busy and multi-layered public space, it has been discovered, considered, commented or ignored by countless people over the past years. It has become a trademark of the city, and every Berliner or Berlin visitor who has walked or driven through the Oranienburger Street, has dealt with this work in one form or another. In its environment, it forms a self-evident and alien element, which can be perceived as an irritation as well as a subliminal message. It throws back on the Now of the viewer and at the same time projects a new level of reality/possibility into the space, which remains permanently effective through the simplicity and the enigma of the sentence.
For more: https://how-long-is-now.jimdosite.com
HOW LONG IS NOW, 1997, Globalodromia, light installation
HOW LONG IS NOW, 1997, Globalodromia, light installation, FILOART groups show Implosion, Kunsthaus Tacheles, 2000, Berlin
HOW LONG IS NOW, 1997, Globalodromia, The Kosova Art Gallery,2001, Prishtinë
HOW LONG IS NOW, 1997, Globalodromia, Light installation, Galerie 35, 2004, Berlin
Link to the Video
HOW LONG IS NOW, 1997, Globalodromia, East Facade of Tacheles, View from Oranienburger Straße, 2006-2019, Berlin
NOW over NOW, HOW LONG IS NOW, 1997, Installation, Berlin Wall over the Wall of Prishtina, National Gallery of Kosova, 2019, Prishtina, Exhibition: Metaxyum”Gruoping-Moving-Spreading”
HOW LONG IS NOW, 1997, since 2019, Friedenstraße, Berlin, Parallel NOW´s.
At the same time two HOW LONG IS NOW works could be seen (form June 2019 -November 2019) in Berlin, at Oranienburger Straße and at the Friedenstraße, Berlin
Covering HOW LONG IS NOW, 2019, East Facade of Tacheles, Berlin
Bricked HOW LONG IS NOW, 2022 view from August Strasse, Berlin
HOW LONG IS NOW, 1997, Reflection of NOW, Globalodromia, 2022, Prishtina
Reflection of NOW, 2019
Globalodromia / FILOART
The work that deals with one of the fundamental questions of humanity reflects the mystery that it contains in itself.
HOW LONG IS NOW is a work which at no moment gives the (same) answer!? On the contrary, as its the character of the work itself (Each Now ist different as a phenomenon but also for each Rezipient), at each moment the work changes its surface by permanent changing of the reflection of surroundings. In this way, the environment reflected in the work is includedin the question itself that the work asks, which mean everything that surrounds this work is questioned.
Conceived specifically for this space, the work, among others, thematizes the question of where it manifests now and in this case it does through the light of the Sun. This can be experienced by any passer-by who is in front of this work.It takes approximately 8 minutes and 20 seconds until the ray from the Sun reaches the work, is reflected by the work, and then reaches the senses of the viewer (eyes) and from there, information is conveyed to the viewer’s brain.This begs the question, where does it happen NOW? In the Sun, in the work from which the sunlight is reflected or when they arrive in the brain of the viewer?
A question which only opens a horizon of new questions. This work questions not only the duration of Now, but in general the phenomenon of NOW, so what is NOW?.
HOW LONG IS NOW is a work that questions itself and perhaps requires a redefinition of itself, which means, a redefinition of the NOW phenomenon!
HOW LONG IS NOW is a question that has the same importance as the question WHERE IS I – situated?. Although during the day we often use the word I again and again, we still do not know where the I is exactly located and where the I is manifested?
These two questions are probably the main questions to understand the meaning of our (human) existence , from which answers we are still far away!
Dialogue with Chat GPT 3
Dialogue with Chat GPT 3
March 16. 2023
G: how long is now?
Chat GPT 3: “Now” is a concept used to describe the present moment, which is constantly changing and fleeting. Therefore, it is impossible to measure or define a specific length of “now” in terms of time or duration. It is an instantaneous moment that exists only in the present and is constantly being replaced by the next moment.
G: how long does it last?
Chat GPT 3: The duration of “now” can be considered as an infinitely small moment in time, which has no measurable length. This is because “now” is constantly changing and shifting to the next moment, making it impossible to determine a specific length of time. It is a transient and fleeting concept that exists only in the present moment and cannot be quantified in terms of time or duration.