The relation between images and time may assume various forms. The interpretation of artworks changes over the course of time. While some works become obsolete, others suddenly become relevant; new ways of artistic expression, motifs and personalities enter art history, mirroring the current social debate and situation. At the same time, however, images can be read against the chronological straight line of time and new dynamic expressions of the present can be sought in the past. Time is imprinted in images – whether they are static, moving, analogue or digital – in the form of the quality of their representation or recording, thus becoming a challenge for preservers taking care of the surface of the images and curators shifting their contexts. Time can also become the subject of images and offer representations of the past and the future, the recent and the remote, expanding the present moment of the viewers looking at the image as well as their imagination. Last but not least, some images, especially in the field of architecture and urbanism, always remain in the state of potentiality as unrealized projects leaving a significant mark on the past and present visual culture in the form of a vision, thus constantly keeping it up to date.
How to escape the canon of linear chronological reading of art history when interpreting images? What challenges are faced by film researchers when reconstructing multimedia works? How to think about architecture that was never seen by anyone?
EVA SKOPALOVÁ, art theorist and historian, curator (Faculty of Arts, Charles University): The Time of Return
TOMÁŠ HÁLA, film historian (National Film Archive): The Incomplete Images of Laterna Magika
KLÁRA BRŮHOVÁ, architecture historian (Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, Czech Technical University): The Story of Prague’s Parliament: The Unrealized Visions of the First Republic
