Museum as a Chronotope

Following the definition by Michail Bakhtin I look at the museum as a chronotope of temporal objects as they are manifestations of space and time. Museums become articulate spaces in the same way as encyclopedias. They are helpful to remember and to articulate missing dimensions of time. Museums in this sense are space-time compressions that provide new narratives and therefore new subjects. It is specifically felt while walking through the museum and encountering objects. Walking and looking, which are activities usually understood as a normal part of our physical existence, in the space of a museum they become techniques of perceiving and knowing things.

Zeigam Azizov is a British artist of Azeri origin. He was born in Azerbaijan and currently lives and works in London. Central to his work are questions of temporality and ‘recorded memory’ as manifested in the circulation of knowledge, which he explores in videos, films, drawings and installations. He exhibited his work worldwide, including recently: Baku Yarat Contemporary Art Centre (Azerbaijan, 2016), Marayah Art Centre (Sharjah, 2014), the Venice Biennale (Azerbaijan pavilion, 2011 and Utopia Station, 2003), Tate Modern, London (2006), Haus der Kunst, Munich (2004), Grazer Kunstverein, Graz (2002), and TN Probe, Tokyo (2001). In 2006 he was nominated for the Paul Hamlyn Awards and shortlisted for Decibel Awards. He lectures about visual culture at the Institute for Media and Communication at the University of Klagenfurt in Austria.