Gathering Time

Helmut Smits has placed a clock on one of the busy squares; however, its “right” movement is not controlled by any operator, but by the passers-by who are invited by volunteers to set the time displayed on the clock according to their own watches or mobile phones. Since the clock does not show a continuous time, each figure is fixed on the display and remains until it is updated by someone else. The more interactivity takes place, the more precise Smits’s clock will be. But whenever the activity of the passers-by is discontinued, a metaphysical timelessness results, pointing to one of the basic premises of classical physics – time is an illusion.

Realized as a part of Scupltures in the Streets - Brno Art Open 2017.

Helmut Smits (NL) *1974 Roosendaal, lives and works in Rotterdam