RAVENSBURG.- One year is the period in which the earth circles the sun, the unit we use to speak about age or the passing of time. For a year, Tehching Hsieh (b. Nanzhou, Taiwan, 1950, lives in New York) subjected himself to the dizzying task of punching a time clock every hour on the hour, taking a self-portrait at the same time. One Year Performance 1980–1981 (Time Clock Piece) is one of the most uncompromising works ever created on the subject of time. The exhibition It's All About Time deals with our experience of time and focuses on large-scale installations by six international artists that make us aware of various dimensions of temporal perception.

Natural cycles and biological rhythms meet the pulse of late capitalism; prayer rituals that recall trance, rave and ecstasy suspend the ordinary, linear sensation of time in favor of an expanded experience of the present and stand in contrast to the advance of our lives. Alternative proposals for clocks that do not serve the standardized measurement and collective organization of time demonstrate that time is not exhausted by timing and efficiency, but inseparably linked to our experience. The exhibition directs our attention toward the complex phenomenon of time not as an object of knowledge, but as a dimension of our being. In the words of Tehching Hsieh, the passing of time “is all life is, and it’s the one thing that makes us all equal.”

With works by Jill Baroff, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Rafik Greiss, David Horvitz, Tehching Hsieh, Alicja Kwade

Curator: Ute Stuffer (director)

Accompanying program

Thursday, May 21, 7pm: In Dialogue with Thomas D. Trummer, director, Kunsthaus Bregenz. Joint tour of exhibition

Thursday, June 18, 6pm: In Dialogue with Stephan Berg, former director, Kunstmuseum Bonn. Joint tour of exhibition

Friday, July 3, 6pm: In Dialogue with Georg Imdahl, art critic, writer, and professor, Kunstakademie Münster

Thursday, April 23, July 16, 5pm: Guided curatorial tour