BERLIN.- The Clock by Christian Marclay is a 24-hour video work that takes viewers through a century of cinematic history. Since its debut in London in 2010 and its win of the Golden Lion at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011, it has become a global sensation, exhibited in major museums such as MoMA in New York (2012/13 & 2024/25), the MCA in Sydney (2013), the Centre Pompidou in Paris (2014), and the Tate London (2018/19). Now, it comes to Berlin for the first time: from 29 November 2025 to 25 January 2026 at Neue Nationalgalerie.

Captivating audiences across the world since its debut in 2010, The Clock is a thrilling and poignant montage of thousands of film and television clips that depict clocks or reference time. Following several years of rigorous and painstaking research and production, Marclay edited these excerpts to create an immersive visual and sonic experience. This landmark work operates as a gripping journey through cinematic history as well as a functioning timepiece. The installation is synchronised to local time wherever it is on display, transforming artificial ‘cinematic time’ into a sensation of real time inside the gallery.

Combining clips spanning 100 years of well-known and obscure films, including thrillers, westerns and science fiction, audiences watching The Clock experience a vast range of narratives, settings and moods within the space of a few minutes, allowing time to unravel in countless directions at once. “The Clock is neither good nor bad, but sublime—perhaps the greatest film you will ever see,” stated Zadie Smith in the New York Review of Books. “Watching The Clock for 24 hours might sound like torture. Yet, it is strangely addictive, and visitors often stay far longer than they planned. You can't lose track of time, yet somehow, it slips away from you,” wrote Holly Williams in the New York Times in 2018.

The Clock will be on view in a newly constructed cinema space within the upper hall of Neue Nationalgalerie. Two special 36 hours screenings are scheduled from Friday, 5 December, 10 am to Saturday, 6 December 2025, 8pm, and from Friday, 2 January, 10 am to Saturday, 3 January 2026, 8 pm.

In a newly constructed cinema space within the upper hall of the Mies van der Rohe building, The Clock is on view daily during regular opening hours. From 5 – 6 December 2025 and 2 – 3 January 2026, visitors will have the opportunity to experience the complete 24-hour work at Neue Nationalgalerie. For the 24-hour screening admission is free outside regular opening hours.

Christian Marclay (born 1955) grew up in Switzerland and lives and works in London. Over the past 40 years, he has explored the fusion of fine art and audio cultures, transforming sound and music into visible, physical forms through performance, collage, sculpture, installation, photography, and video.

Christian Marclay. The Clock is curated by Klaus Biesenbach, Director of the Neue Nationalgalerie, and Lisa Botti, Curator at the Neue Nationalgalerie.