Two primeval phenomena with which philosophy wrestles are Time and Space. Our dealing with these concepts takes place in time; philosophizing is an activity whose nature brings it close to the activity involved in creating a work of art. An important difference is that philosophy expresses itself principally in words, written words, while art uses everything that is available. Art has the inexhaustible possibility of attaching itself to anything in tangible space. This applied form of philosophy in action is not choosy about the vehicle with which it serves itself. And with that, something strange has happened with its philosophical origin: it creeps into many dead things, where philosophy can only exist as movement. You practice philosophy while you cycle, walk, butter a slice of bread, read, work a machine; in short: it is action. In Rose's tape both these worlds overlap. The philosophical nature of Rose's 'sermon' enters into a mimetic correspondence with his movements and the formal, staged conditions of the recording. Image become language, language becomes image. Like an ideal marriage, the two spouses encroach supportively upon each others existence. In contrast to many marriages, however, there is never any painful disharmony. The symbiosis is complete. The final result is not philosophy, and perhaps not art either. It raises itself above the old bipartite division; an new medium comes into existence. Just before its conclusion, this treatment of time reaches the point at which the methodology of the 'sermon' against the content falls away. That happens when Rose speaks about the end of the narrative form, which leaves you completely astounded. That happens too after the three intense minutes that this tape lasts. The meta speech about time becomes an almost tangible space which invites habitation in the actuality of being astonished. Then there is silence.
– Willem van Weelden
|
|
|