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Title
Object to be Destroyed: Time Transitions
Artist
Marco Brambilla
Year
2026
Medium
MP4
Dimensions
5,440 × 1,260 px
Description of Artwork
Marco Brambilla's reinvention of the iconic readymade takes inspiration from Man Ray's original work, which has been recreated in various scales and forms throughout the years, and translates it into the digital realm.
Object to be Destroyed: Time Transitions is a panoramic high-definition video installation that explores the parallels between airports as transitional spaces and the passage of time itself, as marked by the rhythmic ticking of a metronome, an object deeply associated with measuring and marking time.
The installation consists of a computer-generated looped video that presents a series of surreal synchronized larger-than-life metronomes, gradually disassembling and reconfiguring the objects and invoking the spirit of the Dada movement's iconic artwork.
About the Artist
Marco Brambilla is a leading figure in contemporary video art, internationally recognized for pioneering the use of digital image-making as a medium for monumental, immersive art. Working at the intersection of cinema, advertising, technology, and fine art, Brambilla has spent decades pushing moving image beyond the screen—transforming it into large-scale, spatial experiences that reimagine how images are produced, assembled, and experienced.
Long before the current explosion of AI-generated imagery, Brambilla was experimenting with digital compositing and computational image-making to create densely layered worlds from thousands of fragments of popular culture. His signature approach—appropriating and re-contextualizing archival and cinematic imagery into elaborate, often satirical spectacles—turns the visual language of mass culture back on itself, exploring themes of desire, excess, technology, power, and contemporary spectacle.