Horizonverticaal, Haarlem
28-5-2012 t/m 2-7-2012
Artists: Gijs Assmann, Martha Colburn, Natasja Kensmil en Jeroen Kool.
The awareness of death and our attempts to transcend it have haunted humanity for at least the last ten thousand years. The prospect of death wonderfully concentrates the mind: the idea of death can be claimed to be the real ‘muse of philosophy’ , the eternal mystery at the core of our religious and philosophical systems of thought.
For many ‘being towards death’ provides the context for human action. Our experience of time is shaped by the knowledge of impending death. We strive to comprehend the human condition and to be conscious of life’s full meaning in the face of the certainty of our own personal extinction. We construct and participate publicly in a world and its institutions that started before we were born and will continue after we die, yet our experience of time is strictly personal – from now to then – and this private experience is shaped by the knowledge of our impending death.
From the moment of our own individual extinction, our death becomes an episode in the public time of others. An opportunity to reflect on death to come and to dwell on the meaning of time and existence.
Curators: Jeroen Kool & Caroline de Bruijn
Text: Jeroen Kool
