Maarten Baas

Real Time Conveyor Belt Clock, 2025, Two-channel video, Dimensions variable. Collection of SK Inc.

Real Time XL The Artist, 2018, Single channel video, 250 x 250 x 270 cm. Courtesy the Artist

Workers in blue overalls move ceaselessly on screen. They assemble and disassemble clock hands on a conveyor belt as minutes pass. In <Real Time Conveyor Belt Clock>, created specially for Podo Museum, workers produce new clock hands every minute in endless repetition. In <Real Time XL The Artist>, the artist repeatedly draws and erases clock hands for 12 hours inside a room-sized cubic structure. Viewers experience the illusion of someone truly trapped behind glass. Baas transforms abstract time into material through human labor, revealing how modern people live bound by time through seemingly meaningless repetitive actions. The work questions whether we live according to time or time controls us, presenting this ambiguity with both humor and unease. Dutch designer Marten Baas has gained international recognition for visualizing time, highlighting modern humanity trapped within small temporal units.