Christian Marclay

Tobias Hildebrandt, Tobias_Hildebrandt [replace with @] gmx.de

• Born 1955 in California

• Grew up in Switzerland, lives in New York

• Studied visual arts in Geneva (Switzerland),

Boston and New YorkBoston and New York

• Influenced by Punk rock

• Inspired by Fluxus, John Cage, Marcel

Duchamp (dadaist artist)

• Primary subject: world of recorded music and

music culture

• His art refers to the music of others

• Often looks at fetishism attached to relics of • Often looks at fetishism attached to relics of

art history

• DJing, performances, installations, video,

sculptures, paintings …

• Some works contain audio elements, some

don’t have any audio content

• A lot of his works are visual or plastic

(->Not a classical sound artist)(->Not a classical sound artist)

• Usually works with sound of “musical”

significance

• Not much studio recordings, mostly live

performing

Works (excerpt)

• 1979 – ?: Band “The Bachelors, even”

– Punk band

– Kurt Henry: Guitar

– Christian Marclay: Vocals, Tapes of– Christian Marclay: Vocals, Tapes of

skipping records as percussion instruments

• 1979 – various records and performances

using vinyl records and turntables

Works (excerpt)

• 1985: Record without a cover (vinyl record)

- Sold without a cover

- Intended to collect “traces” of journey

from shop to customers’ homefrom shop to customers’ home

Works (excerpt)

• 1989: Footsteps (exhibition), Shedhalle

Galleries, Zurich

- Floor covered with 3,500 copies of his

record “footsteps”

- People had to step on them- People had to step on them

- Records were sold later

Works (excerpt)

• 1991-92: Body mix (collage series)

– Collages of record covers

Works (excerpt)

• 1994: False Advertising (poster project)

– Fake concert posters of himself

– Widely posted in Geneva

Works (excerpt)

• 1995: Telephones (video+sound)

• 2002: Video Quartet (installation)

– Found Hollywood film clips of music making

transferred to color video and audio tracktransferred to color video and audio track

– Projected to four screens

– Length: 14 minutes

• …still working on current projects and

exhibitions

SourcesBiography:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:jxfpxqq5ldse~T1

http://www.acmi.net.au/52DB69A106EE480AB7FCE64910DA8B22.htm

Interviews:

Bomb Magazine, Issue 84/Summer 2003

(http://bombsite.com/issues/84/articles/2562)

http://www.tate.org.uk/onlineevents/podcast/mp3/2007_11_24_talkingart_

marclay.mp3

http://www.furious.com/perfect/christianmarclay.htmlhttp://www.furious.com/perfect/christianmarclay.html

DJ performance + interview:

http://www.ubu.com/film/roulette_marclay_2000.html

Article:

Parkett Magazine, Issue 70/2004

Cover picture from: http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Cmarclay.jpg&filetimestamp=20090124211242

Original uploader: DanKassem