The Israel Museum announce the joint acquisition of Christian Marclay’s video work The Clock (2010), together with the Centre Pompidou in Paris and London’s Tate. This internationally acclaimed masterwork of video art, which was on view at the Israel Museum from August through October 2011, is composed of thousands of film excerpts illuminating the passage of time by means of time-related references, among them images of clocks, watches, or announcements identifying specific times of the day. Marclay extracted each of these moments from its original context to form a 24-hour montage that unfolds according to his reconstruction in real time.
Still from Christian Marclay’s The Clock, Image courtesy the artist and White Cube
The Clock premiered in London in October, 2010, and has since been presented in New York, Los Angeles, Venice, Moscow, Boston, in Paris at the Centre Pompidou, and in Jerusalem at the Israel Museum. Twenty-four-hour screenings have attracted long lines and captivated audiences, with many viewers staying to absorb the work for hours at a time. Marclay won the coveted Golden Lion award at the 2011 Venice Biennale, where The Clock was featured in the central exhibition.
The work premiered at the Israel Museum on August 23, 2011, and remained on view for two months, during which it generated an enthusiastic public response and accolades from the press. Two 24-hour screenings drew approximately 3,500 visitors, while the entire run drew a total of 50,000 visitors. Screenings at the three museums are coordinated so that the work is only ever on view at one venue at any one time.
“We are pleased that this partnership with our colleagues at the Centre Pompidou and Tate enables all of us to share and enjoy with each of our audiences Marclay’s exceptionally masterful creation,” says James S. Snyder, Anne and Jerome Fisher Director of the Israel Museum. “This joint purchase will expand The Clock’s exposure to the widest possible international audience at the same time that it becomes an important addition to our ever-expanding holdings in contemporary art in Jerusalem.”
Nicholas Serota, Director of the Tate, said: “The joint acquisition of The Clock is a further example of Tate’s commitment to important media installations. We are delighted to yet again work in partnership with other major institutions, in this case Centre Pompidou and the Israel Museum, sharing the work with audiences across the world while also allowing the organisations to share expertise and raise the visibility of artists working in film and video.”
Alain Seban, President, Centre Pompidou said: “We are very pleased to be able to acquire this masterpiece in partnership between the three museums, especially thanks to the generosity of our major donors who responded to our request with such enthusiasm.”
Synchronized with the local time at each exhibition venue, Marclay’s The Clock conflates cinematic and actual time, revealing each passing minute as a wellspring of alternately suspenseful, tragic, and romantic narrative possibilities. By precisely referencing actual time wherever it is on display, The Clock transforms the usual sensation of artificial “cinematic time” into the thrilling sensation of real time in the exhibition gallery.
Collage has been a recurring strategy for American artist Christian Marclay since the late 1970s, when, as a pioneering turntablist, he began mixing sounds and recordings before turning to an ever wider range of mediums, including sculpture, photography, and performance. His video work often involves audiovisual assemblage compiled from film excerpts, recontextualizing fragments of modern movie culture into new creative compositions. The Israel Museum’s contemporary art collection also includes Marclay’s Virtuoso (2000), acquired in 2003.
The Israel Museum’s acquisition of The Clock has been made possible through the generosity of the Ostrovsky Family Fund in honor of the Museum’s 2010 Campus Renewal Project. Its presentation at the Museum was curated by Suzanne Landau, Yulla and Jacques Lipchitz Chief Curator of the Fine Arts and Landeau Family Curator of Contemporary Art. – www.english.imjnet.org.il
