The starting point of the exhibition's itinerary is the circular room on the
left that is connected to the entrance hall; the route ends in the similarly
circular room. The video work entitled The Cobbler's Apprentice is to
be seen in both spaces. For the succeeding stations, present layers of time stiffened
in motionlessness, the motion picture of the video recording defines and at the
same time counterpoints the stillness of the surrounding works. The clock, composed
specifically for human figures, indicates the obvious finite-infinite nature
of time. In the middle of the clock's face-circle there lies, lent to his side,
a single-eyed old man, the Wandering Jew, dressed in a shabby suit, wearing a
tie, with his stick resting on the floor, and his body is in a nearly immovable
posture as if he was listening to music. He is Ahasvéros, the legendary
shoemaker, who didn't let Jesus rest on his bench on the way to Golgotha, and
even derided him, therefore he must go on wandering till the end of time, up
to the day of the Last Judgement. There are twelve women sitting by the roman
numbers of the clock's face, dressed as shoemakers, on shoemaker's stools with
their backs to the centre of the circle, and holding a shoetree with an upturned
shoe between their legs. There is a hammer in their hands, and their complexion
is concealed by a mourning veil. On the edge of the clock there is a cobbler's
apprentice creeping slowly counter clockwise, moving against time. When he goes
past a woman sitting by a number, she strikes the sole of the shoe put on the
shoetree with the hammer, so she beats the time.
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