“Time is what is done, and even what makes everything happen” Henri Bergson
The philosopher Henri Bergson defined time in his Essay on the Immediate data of Consciousness as a rational and objective quantification of the passing of seconds and minutes. However, he opposes to it the notion of length that is to him “the true time”. Length is subjective and specific to each, and it depends on “a succession of our state of consciousness”. The italian artist Federico Pietrella chose to use time as a medium. As a matter of fact, his only tool is the date stamp. He said that he chose it “because it was the simplest tool I found to capture time.” But can time really be captured ? Even if it is an exact and measurable notion, it is also a dimension of consciousness that depends on an individual and individual perception. Pietrella thus represents length, or the passing of time and not time itself.
