ABEXIST-ENCE: THE GALAXY OF PRESENCE IN 21ST-CENTURY SEOUL

1. Now-Time

This article is written in 2018, with the assumption that I’m writing in 2049 and that it would be read by you around 2050. Therefore my text confuses past, present and future tenses. For example, the present of 2018 is the past, the future of 2049 is the present and/or the past, and the future of 2050 is the present. What is the reason for this? The purpose is to illustrate the possibility of time overlapping and mixing in one’s mind. Tenses are considered interconnected and relative, (1618–19) by the master of Baroque art, Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The sculpture depicts a scene from Virgil’s epic poem, in which Aeneas, the legendary founder of Rome, leads his old, blind father Anchises and his young, innocent son Ascanius away from burning Troy. They represent the coexistence of times that have different temporal qualities and their presence creates a parallax view. According to Walter Benjamin’s concept of historical philosophy, from his essay “On the Concept of History,” we could call this an instance of “now-time” (), a term Benjamin devised to claim that every single moment of history has the potentiality of temporal synthesis within it and requires its awakening by the people.