The installation The Refusal of Time, created for Documenta 13 at Kassel and presented for the first time in Italy at MAXXI, is an explosion of music, images and shadows with at the centre a pulsing Leonardesque machine. Visitors are regaled with a total experience, transported into an epic, fairy-tale dimension where time is annulled.
The work was born out of a lengthy reflection on the concept of time developed by Kentridge together with the physicist and scientific historian Peter L. Galison. It has been produced in collaboration with the composer Philip Miller and with Catherine Meyburgh for the video processing and editing. Dada Masilo worked on the choreography.
William Kentridge, Phillip Miller, Catherine Meyburgh: The Refusal of Time, 2012, 5-channel projections with megaphones and a breathing machine (elephant), c. 24 min.,
Commissioned by dOCUMENTA (13), produced by Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, Paris; Lia Rumma Gallery, Naples, Milan; Goodman Gallery, South Africa with the support of Dr. Naomi Milgrom AO, Australia.
Photo: Henrik Stromberg.
