Hinda Weiss / Deep Time, 2021 at Camera E12 – Malmaison Studios

The solar dating system, the method of marking time used most commonly in the Western world, was created to function on a human scale. Our temporal milestones — weeks, months and years — measure the passage of time within a single lifetime or between generations. But at the geological scale, our granular conception of time crumbles under the weight of millennia. Deep Time, as geologists refer to it, is so colossal that it stretches the human conception of time to its limit.

Time, its malleability, and the means by which it is marked are recurring themes in Hinda Weiss’s works. In After The Desert Goat, Weiss explores the limits of narrative time. The film has no singular defining moment—each scene moves seamlessly into the next. The emptiness of the Negev desert elucidates questions about how one can mark time in a monotonous landscape. In Postcard from Tel Aviv, Weiss explores the process of historiography in Israel’s largest city, both before and after the founding of the state. A common tourist item used to mark an event in time and in an individual’s, life becomes a narrative that spans the city and its history.

During the pandemic, common means of measuring time began to slip away. The days blended as weekly rituals and special events devolved into the monotony of the home. At the same time, new rituals formed in their place — a kind of ad hoc framework for marking the days. Every evening during the worst parts of the pandemic, New Yorkers would emerge from their homes, opening their windows to clap for the doctors, nurses and other workers fighting the virus. Weiss, who was in New York during the early days of the pandemic, documented the daily applause. The resulting work, 7 p.m., archives the development of a new ritual for marking the passage of time.

Deep Time is the first exhibition to be held at our new space, E12, at the second floor of the Atelierele Malmaison. The Malmaison has quickly become one of the most effervescent artist hubs in Bucharest, comprising of artist-run-spaces, galleries, artist studios and experimental art spaces. The building has been a former barrack for the Romanian military and a penitentiary for political prisoners during the Communist era. With the specters of the past haunting the space, Weiss’s works ask us to examine how architecture and landscape can be used to control perceptions of time.

The event was supported by Artis. More information: www.artis.art

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