The
State in Time exists in order to “bestow visibility on time” and
comprises 15,000 citizens worldwide, many of them artists. What possibilities
for reworking the notion of sovereignty come with such a shift in focus away
from territory as a defining element of the nation? How
does inhabiting time, and in particular sharing time, bring about new social
formations, languages, repositories of memory, and units of value? These creations
of human connection and communication across boundaries may be of particular
relevance in our current situation since it has been said that the future of
the left is now in the hands of the “globalized networked youth.”
This symposium on the occasion of the exhibition NSK State Art: New York, The Impossible Return gathers NSK citizen artists and founding citizens of the NSK State in Time. Exhibiting artists Pablo Helguera, Ištvan Išt Huzjan, and Alban Muja will discuss their work crossing borders of mind, memory, and history, and Alban Muja will screen his film Red Door Blue Wall Red Door. Charles Lewis will explain the workings of the national currency, and Conor McGrady will examine the importance of folk art to the state. Eda Čufer and Borut Vogelnik, founding citizens of the NSK State in Time, will discuss the past and future of the state projects, including the pavilion at the upcoming 2017 Venice Biennale.