What is time? How can it be depicted and measured using artistic means? How can we envision the future? This unusual book, published to accompany the eponymous exhibition at Hamburger Kunsthalle, is centered around a work of art: Bogomir Ecker’s Tropfsteinmaschine (Dripstone Machine). Conceived to last a mind-boggling period of 500 years, it fills the entire gallery from the basement to the roof. If everything goes to plan, this machine will have formed stalagmites and stalactites measuring around 2 inches in height after that vast stretch of time.

This might sound small, but it nevertheless inspires us to project our mind far into the future. What will this future look like? How do we want to shape it? And what role can art play in this endeavor? Can it make a substantial contribution to stimulating a debate about perception, imagination, and future thought?

This book brings together around 30 international artists whose works – some of which were especially created for this occasion – address fundamental questions surrounding temporality, sustainability, and visions of the future.

Artists included: Katinka Bock, John Cage, Nina Canell, Gustave Courbet, Attila Csörgő, Hanne Darboven, Edith Dekyndt, Bogomir Ecker, Oswald Egger, Elena Greta Falcini, Ceal Floyer, Caspar David Friedrich, Monika Grzymala, Pierre Huyghe, Daniel Janik, Samson Kambalu, On Kawara, Axel Loytved, Sarah Lucas, Étienne-Jules Marey, Johanna Reich, Jens Risch, Philipp Otto Runge, Ani Schulze, Roman Signer, Lucía Simón Medina, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Rayyane Tabet, Robin Watkins.