ARTIST EDITION FALL/WINTER 23: TEMPUS FUGIT

Albert Einstein had no doubts: "Time is relative, its only value is given by what we do while it is passing". A saying that emphasises how the passing of hours and minutes is an empty concept if it is not filled with living. Whether it is working, playing sports, cultivating relaxation or indulging in a passion is irrelevant, what matters is to engage in it constructively if we want it to have a "meaning".

Even its measurability is therefore questionable: there are eternal moments, which seem never to flow, and others that are consumed in the duration of a flash. And yet its counting punctuates the life of contemporary man, who never seems to have enough time and leaves the flow of time to be defined by the succession of appointments piled up in his agenda.

Enjoying the ticking of the hand travelling on the dial, stopping the flow of thoughts to learn how to empty the mind, pausing in leisure are unknown practices in a society that does not know what to do with only 24 hours a day. This was well said by Gandhi who, raising the bar, claimed "You westerners, have the hour but you never have the time", as if to remind us how form (the clock) wins out over substance (the sense of time).

The fascination of time passing in the Artist Edition F/W 23

And yet, since its origins, man has tried to tame time, as if wanted to harness it, convinced that a device was enough to keep it in check. When the alternation of the sun and moon was no longer sufficient, to try to measure it, people invented hourglasses, sundials and hydrochronometers that, despite their different "technologies", could not slow down the passing of seconds, minutes and hours. Neither watches managed to do that, which in the name of "Tempus fugit", quickly became indispensable accessories of the wardrobe, especially for men.