ZURICH.- From 24 August to 2 September the Kunsthaus Zürich hosts the first, and exclusive, presentation in Switzerland of Christian Marclay’s masterpiece ‘The Clock,’ which was awarded the Golden Lion at the 2011 Venice Biennale. On 24 and 31 August the video will be shown non-stop for 24 hours.

Audiences in London, New York and Venice waited in long lines to see this fascinating, 24-hour video work, which has now been acquired by the Kunsthaus for its collection in co-ownership with the Luma Foundation.

VIDEO COLLAGE OF FILMS FROM ALL GENRES
With ‘The Clock’, artist/musician Marclay samples thousands of film excerpts to indicate the passage of time. Using a range of timepieces, from clock towers to wristwatches and from buzzing alarm clocks to the occasional cuckoo, ‘The Clock’ draws attention to time as a multifaceted protagonist of cinematic narrative. The installation is constructed from a spectacular variety of periods, contexts and film genres, representing a veritable 100-year history of cinema, showing bank heists, chase scenes, emergency rooms, shootouts, silent comedies, detective dramas, and more. With virtuosic skill, the artist has excerpted each of these moments of image and sound from their original contexts and edited them together to form a 24-hour montage, which unfolds in real time, synchronized with the local time of the exhibition space.

ROUND-THE-CLOCK OPERATION; LIMITED SEATING
Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis. Comfortable sofas can accommodate up to 45 people at a time. Limited standing room is also available. The video can be viewed for the normal price of admission during general opening hours. It will also be shown without interruption from 10 a.m. on Friday 24 August to 6 p.m. on Saturday 25 August, and again from 31 August 10 a.m. to 1 September 6 p.m.

While the gallery will remain open overnight, the other parts of the collection will be closed. Because of limited seating, it will not be possible to accommodate groups. Re-entry on the same day is permitted.

CHRISTIAN MARCLAY AND THE KUNSTHAUS VIDEO COLLECTION
Christian Marclay was born in California and grew up in Geneva where he studied art at the École supérieure d’art visuel. He lives and works in London. The principle of collage – be it musical, sculptural or graphic – has been a constant in his work for more than thirty years. In 1997 he presented an exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zürich consisting of a collage of collection holdings, ‘Arranged and conducted by Christian Marclay.’ The collection also includes Marclay’s early video ‘Telephones’ (1995). The Kunsthaus video collection comprises some 650 titles from the pioneering age of the medium in the 1960s through to the present day, including works by artists of international renown as well as a cross-section of Swiss video production. The opening of the Kunsthaus extension in 2017 will provide an infrastructure that accords the medium of video a fixed place in the collection presentation. Currently, the works can be viewed free of charge by appointment in the Kunsthaus library.

‘The Clock’ is a work in co-ownership of the Kunsthaus Zürich and Luma Foundation.