Time, Irony, and the Broken Watch: A Philosophical Inquiry

Lucrezia Longobardi delves into the concepts of time and irony through a deeply personal and philosophical perspective, beginning with her non-functioning watch. She references Martin Heidegger’s thoughts on existential disorientation and quotes Gioacchino Belli regarding death’s relationship with clocks, which Ahmet Tanpinar counters by stating that death overlooks them. Longobardi also examines Luciano De Crescenzo's 1980s film "32 December," which humorously questions the nature of time. She posits that irony and humor provide brief moments of understanding. Modern time is portrayed as oppressive, as seen in Lawrence Carroll's White Rabbit from "Alice in Wonderland." Longobardi views wearing a stopped watch as a political statement against connectivity, contributing to social problems such as hikikomori and depression. This essay is part of a series on existential space, referencing the 2019 installations by Liz Magor and Luigi Ghirri at Fondazione Morra in Naples.