Pietro Sanguineti

(now), 2013

Pietro Sanguineti’s (now) is about the moment of recognition and of fulfillment; something that the Danish existential philosopher Sören Kierkegaard interpreted as a primal factor anchored in eternity. Picking up on this thought, the artist has brought into his work the abstract symbol of eternity – the horizontal ‘8.’ It floats above, and partially overlies, the term (now). This sets up a contradiction between the ‘here and now’ and the concept of eternity as originated in the philosophy of China. The fact that the ∞ eternity symbol does not appear on keyboards or smartphones – to type it, one needs an app with a name such as ‘Cool Symbols Emoji Emoticon’ – tells one something: the eternity symbol plays no role in our western communication and thought systems. What is opened up in this artwork is a dynamic interplay/antagonism between the figure and the ground, between the foreground and the background, between the now and the eternity. Sanguineti’s (now) is also the present moment in parentheses. It demonstrates how the actuality and significance of the ‘now’ ages – its time is past as soon as the next moment arrives. In a free market, in a competition situation, it is always only the present moment that matters.