The Longest Sentence*, 2024
Hacked Watch winder, tin casted labyrinth, steel ball, glass  and velcro
11 x 11 x 16cm


The Longest Sentence* is a black cube slotted into the wall. A small tin casted labyrinth is mounted onto the object, inside a steel ball is held in place by a small glass pane. The labyrinth is constantly being brought into rotation by the cube. In order to produce this rotation, the sculpture makes use of a watch winder, a mechanical device which keeps watches in motion for when they are not being worn on the owner's wrist. A device like this can be necessary for automatic watches, since these have got a small spring inside that needs to be kept taut. The spring in a watch that never moves will become too soft or loose and the watch will start telling time slower.

The electronics inside are hacked and re-programmed using a so microcontroller, setting a randomised pattern of movement of rotation and short moments of stillness in between. Kept in motion by the watch winder, the steel ball, like a Sisyphean figure, relentlessly moves in circles approaching the centre; yet once it reaches the target and centre of gravity of its concentric journey, it is granted no rest and no sense of arrival.

The motion of the sculpture creates a hypnotic swirl which influences the beholders’ vision in such a way that any other object they might be perceiving next will be perceived as slightly turning. Or that even in the short pauses of its rotating movement the sculpture refuses to be perceived as standing still. 











* The title refers to the longest published sentence written by Karl Marx, describing in detail the specialist types of workers involved in manufacturing a watch:

“Formerly the individual work of a Nuremberg artificer, the watch has been transformed into the social product of an immense number of detail labourers, such as mainspring makers, dial makers, spiral spring makers, jewelled hole makers, ruby lever makers, hand makers, case makers, screw makers, gilders, with numerous subdivisions, such as wheel makers (brass and steel separate), pin makers, movement makers, acheveur de pignon (fixes the wheels on the axles, polishes the facets, &c.), pivot makers, planteur de finissage (puts the wheels and springs in the works), finisseur de barillet (cuts teeth in the wheels, makes the holes of the right size, &c.), escapement makers, cylinder makers for cylinder escapements, escapement wheel makers, balance wheel makers, raquette makers (apparatus for regulating the watch), the planteur d’échappement (escapement maker proper); then the repasseur de barillet (finishes the box for the spring, &c.), steel polishers, wheel polishers, screw polishers, figure painters, dial enamelers (melt the enamel on the copper), fabricant de pendants (makes the ring by which the case is hung), finisseur de charnière (puts the brass hinge in the cover, &c.), faiseur de secret (puts in the springs that open the case), graveur, ciseleur, polisseur de boîte, &c., &c., and last of all the repasseur, who fits together the whole watch and hands it over in a going state.”

Capital, Vol. I, published in 1867.