Conventional time fosters repetition (of a basic unit from the second to the century), linearity and a singular direction that privileges the future and the infinite, and never turning back – palintropos. Yet, personal (e. g., serious illness) or collective events (e. g., epidemics, disasters, wars, outbreaks of violence) reveal that time can undergo condensations, accelerations, folds, and twists. In such moments, individual and collective life steps outside established boundaries, spiraling as time is experienced as an intense, even unbearable, condition. These crystallizations of time can mark the onset of the unpredictable and, occasionally, the creative.

The performance "Incessant Successions, IV" explores temporal sequences and the remembrance of life events. Diary pages (Filofax), which I have been collecting for the last few years, chronicling daily minutiae, serve as traces of my personal path. Selected pages are removed, torn apart, and become scattered remanants of past events. I initiate the destruction of these pages, and the attendees continue, creating a volume of scraps. Finally, I spread a mixture of cereals over the cone of scraps, forming an installation.

Through this destruction of diary pages, a primary opportunity arises to "restart" time, embracing both diversity and the unavoidable.

TEXT POEM OF PERFORMANCE Incessant successions, IV

[ … mortals
… mortals]

merciless repetition

time possible
impossible
weak

time
of time
to time
oh time!

10’’ seconds to state it
12’’ seconds to write it

real time
the time of Physics
the time of the clock
inconstant time
space-time
quantum time
artificial time
time
the time of corruption
time after birth
time before death
malleable time
linear time

infinite time
two-dimensional time
coherent time
relaxed time
flexible time

algorithmic time

entropy time
enthalpy time
hard time
implacable time
connventional time
discontinuous time
torsion time
ill-defined time
irreconcilable time
eternal time
time to be timed
temporary time
permanent time
eccentric time
central time
powerful time
pale time
gap time
time of convergence
the time of submission
the time of manipulation
the time of emancipation

[Demosthenes Agrafiotis, 2024]