MaerzMusik – Festival for Time Issues 2021 ended with a project I developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: an artistic monument, a community endeavour and a manifestation of solidarity with artists and others hit by the pandemic.
TIMEPIECE is a 27-hour live speaking clock, performed by Berlin residents on the Grand Stage of Haus der Berliner Festspiele, accompanied musically by over 50 commissions, and streamed live around the world.
The project is based on Peter Ablinger's concept piece “TIM Song” (2012) and his idea to perform live and in real-time the text of the BBC Speaking Clock. TIMEPIECE extends this idea to a 27-hour video-streamed, multilingual and musically diverse live performance set on the slowly revolving stage of Haus der Berliner Festspiele, completing a 360° turn every hour, like the hand of a gigantic clock.
Starting on 27 March at 20:00 Central European Winter Time and ending on 28 March at 24:00 Central European Summer Time, TIMEPIECE travels through changing landscapes of music and speaking voices, second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour.
Inverting the logic of wage labour, TIMEPIECE offered Berliners the opportunity to earn money in an accelerated way, while other layers of time stood still due to the pandemic.
