Time Does Not Flow: An Exhibition Explores the Ancestors’ Wisdom of Cycles

Modern people generally imagine time moving from the past through the present and toward the future. The exhibition “Time” at Seoul’s Horim Museum presents a different vision, one in which time returns and repeats.

A passage from the 1804 edition of the annotated Thousand Character Classic defines the universe through space and time. Space becomes the four directions and the realms above and below, while time encompasses the past and the present.

The exhibition explores several meanings of time across the natural world, the universe and human life. Its first section, “Cycles, Time That Returns,” considers recurring patterns such as the daily return of the day and the annual turning of the four seasons.

The show also brings contemporary art into each thematic section. Visitors can compare older understandings of time with the ways artists today represent it.

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When the inside of heaven and earth is described as space, it becomes the four directions and the realms above and below; when described as time, the past and the present become the universe.