BOSTON, MASS.- The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) presents the U.S. debut of Christian Marclay’s Doors, a captivating single-channel video that stitches together hundreds of film clips depicting movement in and out of doorways.
In Doors (2022), Christian Marclay (b. 1955, San Rafael, California) creates a continuously looping, seemingly endless journey where protagonists get lost and find themselves again. As one door opens or closes, the film cuts to the next clip of another door opening or closing. The pioneering visual artist, composer, and DJ employs several techniques from his background in sound design—including sampling, pacing, and looping—to seamlessly transition between imagery and soundscapes. More than a decade in the making, the moving image collage draws from nearly all genres of narrative cinema ranging from French New Wave to Hollywood blockbusters. Christian Marclay: Doors is organized by Tessa Bachi Haas, ICA Assistant Curator, and will be on view from April 17 through Sept. 1, 2025.
Marclay describes Doors as a perfect loop: “We enter a dark projection space and don’t know when the video has started, how long it will last, and when to leave. In this work, I play with that anxiety. There’s no beginning and no end, it’s a perfect loop, yet there are repetitions within. When you see something you’ve already seen you think it’s time to leave, but those repetitions might lead to different doors, not the ones you have seen before. I’m building in people’s minds an architecture in which to get lost.”
“We are thrilled to present the U.S. premiere of Christian Marclay’s highly anticipated work,” said Haas. “Doors is a spellbinding film that exemplifies the artist’s innovative editing capacities with equal attention to visual imagery and immersive sound. Disparate spaces, actors, and scenes are tethered together through carefully edited transitions marked by doors. It invites audiences to follow, and get lost, on a journey across seemingly endless passageways.”
Born in 1955 in San Rafael, California, Christian Marclay is a composer and visual artist based in London and New York, renowned for his experimental, interdisciplinary work across sound, video, sculpture, collage, and installation. Marclay began his investigations into sound and art through performances with turntables while he was a student at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where he completed his BFA in 1980. He has exhibited widely, including solo exhibitions at Centre Pompidou, Paris (2022); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2019); Sapporo Art Museum, Japan (2017); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2010); MoMA PS1, New York (2009); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2006); Barbican Art Gallery, London (2005); and Tate Modern, London (2004), among others. Marclay was awarded the Golden Lion at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011) for his experimental video masterpiece, The Clock (2010)—a 24-hour film montage comprising thousands of clips featuring clocks and time references that are synchronized in real time.
