ZEIT (TIME) – from Dürer to Bonvicini Cat. Kunsthaus Zurich, in cooperation with Musée international d’Horologie, La Chaux-de Fonds, and Arts at CERN

Time is one of the great mysteries in the history of civilization. Its definitions are many and can be found in the most diverse disciplines, from religion to biology and economics, above all, of course, in physics, and as an well-established theme in art. Surprisingly, for all Switzerland’ s reputation as a watchmaking nation, few art museums in the country have yet staged an exhibition on the subject of time that spans multiple eras and disciplines. The sensual journey of the Kunsthaus Zü rich through the history of time therefore now takes a comprehensive look at paintings, films, installations, performances, and real objects such as clocks from the 1550s to the present. Even though the clock as a time-measuring instrument is the starting point: temporal perspectives such as the biological, the paleontological, and even of personal sensations, are explored in depth in this show, curated by Cathé rine Hug, with works by, among others, Sinzo Aanza, Giacomo Balla, Black Qantum Futurism, Manon de Boer & George van Dam, Abraham-Louis Breguet, Pieter Claesz, Honoré Daumier, Jean Dubuffet, William Hogarth, Roni Horn, Monica Ursina Jä ger, On Kawara, Herlinde Koelbl.

Cathé rine Hug (b. 1976) is a Swiss art historian and curator, from 2000 until 2007 she was curatorial assistant to Bice Curiger and Tobia Bezzola at Kunsthaus Zurich. In the years 2008 to 2013 she went to Vienna to the Kunsthalle Wien, also there she worked cursorily and was responsible, among other things, for a show with Thomas Ruff. Since 2013 she has been curator at the Kunsthaus Zü rich, where she has set up exhibitions in cooperation with MoMA New York, such as a retrospective on Francis Picabia and in 2016 a show on Dada. Helga Nowotny is Former President of the ERC, the European Research Council (2010– 2013) and one of ist Founding Members. She is Professor emerita of Science and Technology Studies at ETH Zurich. In 2021 The Hannah Arendt Humanities Network announced Helga Nowotny to be the reciptient of the Yehuda Elkana fellowship for her international importance and a wide-ranging and exuberant intellectual curiosity touching the humanities, social science, and science. Her publication » Time. The Modern and Postmodern Experience« (Eigenzeit) has been called the most important postmodernist publication. Mó nica Bello (born 1973) is a Spanish curator, art historian, and head of Arts at Cern. Over the last 12 years she has focused on the multidisciplinary perspectives and the narratives of today’ s techno-scientific culture. In her curatorial research and projects she discusses the way artists instigate new conversations around emergent phenomena in our society and culture, such as the role of science and new knowledge in the perception of reality. Rü diger Safranski (b. 1945) is a German literature scientist, philosopher and writer. His literary work includes the German classics and romantics, so he has published on Schiller, Goethe, Hö lderlin, or Nietzsche. He has been awarded countless prizes for this work, such as the Ludwig Bö rne Prize, the Leipzig Book Fair Prize, the Ernst Robert Curtius Prize, and the Thomas Mann Prize. From 2012 to 2014, he was one of the participants of european TV culture chanel 3sat and the format Literaturclub. From 2002 to 2012, he co-hosted the Philosophical Quartet with Peter Sloterdijk on the ZDF. Josef Teichmann (b. 1972) is a professor at ETH Zurich for Mathematics. After his master in Mathematics at the University of Graz and his dissertation at the University of Vienna (1996– 1999), post-doc-positions with special interests in geometrical questions in Stochastic Analysis and mathematical Finance, he was assistant professor, visiting professor, associate professor, and with the START-project from 2007 until 2009 at TU Vienna, he later became professor at the ETZ Zurich. Sé bastien Vivas is director and curator of the Museum & Heritage department of Audemars Piguet. His mission with his team of two historians, an archivist, four watch restorers, and a specialist, an assistant, and an apprectice, is to gather, preserve, structure and enrich all sources relating to the history of Audemars Piguet, so as to enhance the image of the company and its creations from 1875 to the present day through exhibitions, publications, events, etc. Stefan Zweifel (b. 1967) is a Swiss translator and journalist, from 2007 until 2014 he was one of the critics at the european TV culture chanel 3sat and the format Literaturclub. He translated Boris Vian, Marquis de Sade, Alfred Jarry, Raymond Russel, and Marcel Proust.

Curatorial Introduction: Cathé rine Hug: Do not seek the answers – live the questions now! Chapter 1: Deep Time Mó nica Bello: The Account of an Exceptional Quest Chapter 2: Biological Perspective Being is Time – A conversation between Stefan Zweifel and Rü diger Safranski Chapter 3: Measurable, Economic Perspective Sé bastien Vivas: O time, suspend your flight! – Watchmakers, in a valley beyod time and space Chapter 4: Political Dimension Monika Leonhardt: Of town clock adjusters, railway timetables and time zones Chapter 5: The Information Superhighway Time, a key economic resource – A conversation between Josef Teichmann and Cathé rine Hug Chapter 6: Eigenzeit / Own Time Festina lente. On the meaningfulness of multiple time concepts – A conversation between Helga Nowotny and Anna Elsner