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Alex Capecelatro

Spotted

Maarten Baas — The People's Clock
Maarten Baas — The People's Clock
Maarten Baas — The People's Clock
Maarten Baas

The People's Clock

2020

Maarten Baas's The People's Clock is a monumental public video installation permanently sited in the departure hall of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, specifically Lounge 1 in the Schengen area. The work takes the form of a large four sided LED cube displaying a functioning 12 hour clock whose hour and minute hands are formed by groups of volunteers and performers arranged in aerial footage to collectively embody the passing of time. Rather than mechanical precision, timekeeping becomes a communal and human act, with colorfully dressed participants organizing themselves into living clock hands against a pale urban ground. The piece stands as one of Baas's most ambitious public commissions, transforming an everyday object into a collaborative performance that thousands of travelers encounter daily.

Medium
Video installation on LED screen

Notes

Instagram post by @maarten.baas confirms the work is installed in Schiphol's renewed departure hall, Lounge 1, Schengen area. Photography credit: @thijswolzak. Background music referenced in post: Tom Waits, Time. Post engagement: 3,435 likes, 73 comments, 35 reshares, 392 saves.

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Spotted works by Maarten Baas

About this work

Maarten Baas, The People's Clock, 2020

Maarten Baas's The People's Clock is a monumental public video installation permanently sited in the departure hall of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, specifically Lounge 1 in the Schengen area. The work takes the form of a large four sided LED cube displaying a functioning 12 hour clock whose hour and minute hands are formed by groups of volunteers and performers arranged in aerial footage to collectively embody the passing of time. Rather than mechanical precision, timekeeping becomes a communal and human act, with colorfully dressed participants organizing themselves into living clock hands against a pale urban ground. The piece stands as one of Baas's most ambitious public commissions, transforming an everyday object into a collaborative performance that thousands of travelers encounter daily.

Medium
Video installation on LED screen
Year
2020
Seen at
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

Related themes

Airport Installation, Lavender Palette, Monumental Scale, Dutch Design, Human Clock, Conceptual Art, Aerial Photography, Participatory Performance, Contemporary Dutch Art, Interactive Public Art, Collective Action, Video, Time and temporality

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Olafur Eliasson, Julius von Bismarck, Christian Marclay

Collected by

Alex Capecelatro