THE TYRANNY OF CHRONOS

WITH WORKS BY

YTO BARRADA / CHARLES CHAPLIN / MANUEL CHAVAJAY / VICTORIA CIVERA /  PIETRO MELCHIORRE FERRARI / FRANCISCO DE GOYA / JOSÉ GUTIÉRREZ DE LA VEGA / CANDIDA HÖFFER / IBGHY & LEMMENS / MANOLO LAGUILLO / ANNIE LEIBOVITZ / JAN LEYNIERS / CHEMA MADOZ / JUAN LUIS MORAZA / JAVIER NÚÑEZ GASCO / ANTONIO PICHILLÁ / ÁNGEL POYÓN / ISABEL QUINTANILLA / RAQS MEDIA COLLECTIVE / INMACULADA SALINAS / MLADEN STILINOVICH / ISIDORO VALCÁRCEL MEDINA / PIETER VERMEERSCH

New Annie Leibovitz portraits of the King and Queen of Spain, commissioned for the Banco de España collection, to be unveiled at an exhibition of clocks.

A new exhibition entitled 'The Tyranny of Chronos' forms the backdrop for the official unveiling of Annie Leibovitz's portraits of King Felipe and Queen Letizia and the former governor, Pablo Hernández de Cos. The two new works are the first photographs in the bank's portrait gallery; as such, they mark a new departure in a tradition dating back to the genesis of the bank. However, Leibovitz follows a path first forged by artists such as Goya – whose works are also on display – bringing all her artistic sensitivity to bear in these commissioned portraits. The exhibition also features a wide selection of clocks and artworks from the Banco de España Collection. The pieces, by artists from different backgrounds and eras, challenge and transgress the prevailing notion of time in western society.

How has the modern concept of linear time evolved? How does it relate to the control of productivity? In what way do non-western cultural contexts and the world of art challenge this approach? These are just some of the themes explored in The Tyranny of Chronos. The show draws predominantly on the bank's own collection, some fifty items from which are on show. However other pieces have been especially loaned for the event by a variety of Spanish and foreign institutions.

The exhibits include a large selection of the bank's own timepieces. Clocks and watches have played a crucial role in the way time has been perceived and depicted in western culture, and they have been essential to the workings of the Banco de España since its genesis. The bank was founded at the end of the eighteenth century at the initiative of an incipient financial bourgeoisie that saw clocks as a symbol of progress and social distinction.

The origins of the exhibition can be found in the research into the bank's collection of timepieces conducted by the Conservation Division, which last year published a detailed catalogue raisonné of the nearly two hundred items in the collection. The division’s investigations revealed that the Bank’s oldest clocks were purchased by the Banco de San Carlos – the earliest forerunner of the current Banco de España – to adorn its original offices on Calle de la Luna.

Portraits in the Course of Time

Clocks combine the artistic and the technological, the representative and the functional. Both of these facets can be seen in The Tyranny of Chronos. All the timepieces on show are working models, which gives the exhibition an added auditory dimension; visitors can hear all the sounds of the clock's movements and striking mechanisms, just as the bank's employees have for over two centuries.

The exhibition is divided into three sections. The first, Portraits in the Course of Time shows how the great symbolism of the clock – measuring, moderating and delimiting times and duties – has made it a popular artistic motif, especially in portraits of dignitaries and monarchs. There are a number of examples in the bank's portrait gallery, including Goya's paintings of the Count of Floridablanca and Francisco de Cabarrús; José Gutiérrez de la Vega's 1852 picture of Ramón de Santillán; and the portrait of José Ramón Álvarez-Rendueles painted in 1985 by Madrid artist Isabel Quintanilla (the first woman artist featured in the gallery).

Clocks also feature in the two latest additions to the gallery, the portraits of King Felipe and Queen Letizia and Governor Pablo Hernández de Cos, expressly commissioned by the bank and shot by American photographer Annie Leibovitz, winner of the 2013 Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities. The Tyranny of Chronos seeks to offer a new perspective on the Banco de España’s identity and institutional position and the portraits – which will be officially unveiled at the exhibition – follow in a tradition dating back almost 240 years to the bank's origins. Prominent portrait artists commissioned over that period include Goya, Maella, Vicente López, Federico de Madrazo and Sorolla, and more recently Isabel Quintanilla and Carmen Laffón.

All previous portraits, however, have been paintings. This is the first time that photography has been used, a medium that has revolutionized the genre since its inception in the nineteenth century. Leibovitz is a leading figure in the contemporary photography scene and has authored some of the most iconic portraits in the visual culture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. There is an invisible thread running from Goya and the golden age of Spanish royal portraiture through to the American photographer. This is apparent not only in her commitment to maintaining protocol with the minimum of clutter, but also in her way of approaching the commission with complete freedom and her understanding of the artistic purpose, leading her to create pictures with a sense of historical relevance.

The King is shown wearing the dress uniform of a Captain General of the Spanish Army. The Queen is dressed in two historical garments that were loaned especially for the occasion by the Fundación Antoni de Montpalau, a trust set up in Sabadell in 2004 which has a collection containing more than 6,000 items donated by private individuals. The trust's stated purpose is to preserve, document and disseminate information on fashion and textiles. 

The black fishtail dress, with a strapless neckline, is a formal garment designed by Spanish couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga in the late 1940s in pleated silk tulle. The cape is in fuchsia-coloured wild silk. It was made to a classic Balenciaga design in the 1960s.

Some of Annie Leibovitz's other photographs can be seen in Portraits in the Course of Time, the first of the three sections in the exhibition. The other two – I Don't Have Time and Unclocked Time – include items from the bank's contemporary collection (including some recent acquisitions). They reflect the way the collection has embraced new artistic languages and its move towards a greater international presence in recent years.

I Have No Time

The title of this section echoes a deep-rooted contemporary unease over the fact that our time is – quite literally – no longer our own. The phrase, which is repeated incessantly in a piece by Croatian artist Mladen Stilinović, is used to preface the work of some eminent conceptual artists exploring the western notion of time and its role in capitalist society. It is a relationship that would not have been possible without the clock and the watch, which enabled us to measure time accurately and trade it for other commodities.

This section explores themes such as work as a cause of alienation, the precarious working conditions of the new creative classes, the blurring of the boundaries between work and life, and the relationship between time and money. It also includes a number of artworks that reflect the continued role of the clock – as a metaphor of regulation and order – in the bank's daily life. Far from being mere collector's items or pictorial motifs, clocks are omnipresent in the institution's buildings and workspaces. In addition to the pieces by Stilinović, this section also includes work by Isidoro Valcárcel Medina, Ibghy & Lemmens, Raqs Media Collective, Inmaculada Salinas, Juan Luis Moraza, Manolo Laguillo and Candida Höffer. There is also a short clip from Charlie Chaplin's film Modern Times, one of the most articulate harbingers of contemporary critical theory on the capitalization of human life and bodies.

Unclocked Time

The third and last section most clearly reflects the notion of linear time, so measurable and predictable, that underpins the logic of contemporary production. The works on display here demonstrate that there are alternative ways of conceiving, experiencing and representing time. This section draws on the language of art and non-western cultural contexts, such as indigenismo, which looks to another notion of time, linked more to natural cycles and indigenous knowledge.

Together with this notion of an alternative, reversible, non-linear time, the show also contains examples of artistic processes that champion alternative models of time associated with the 'slow movement' and others that directly challenge the prevailing idea that time is money and should not be 'wasted'. These artists take more liberating postures in their conception and experience of time and their discussion of the way it is regulated by the consumer society. This transgressive and potentially emancipating dimension of non-colonial and poetic time is explored and championed in this third section by artists such as Yto Barrada, Antonio Pichillá, Ángel Poyón, Manuel Chavajay, Pieter Vermeersch, Javier Núñez Gasco, Victoria Civera, Chema Madoz and Inmaculada Salinas.

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Curated by Yolanda Romero, conservator at the Banco de España, The Tyranny of Chronos contains over fifty works by twenty-four separate artists and collectives, including tapestries, paintings, sculptures, photographs and clocks. The oldest, dating to 1684, is a tapestry made by Jan Leyniers to a design by David Teniers III, entitled Triumph of Love and Eternity over Time, while the most recent pieces are from the 2020s. The show features around twenty clocks; most date from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, although there are some twentieth-century pieces as well. Six institutions have loaned works for the exhibition: Patrimonio Nacional, Museo Nacional del Romanticismo, Museo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, Museo Naval de Madrid, Musée International d'Horlogerie La Chaux-de-Fonds and the Gerardo van Waalwijk van Doorn Collection.

Paralleling the exhibition, a catalogue has been published, which as well as providing detailed information on all the pieces on display, includes a series of essays exploring in greater depth the issues and problems addressed in the show. This publication and the catalogue Banco de España Collection of Timepieces. The Hours in Numbers Garbed, on which the exhibition is based, are available to download free of charge from the website of the Banco de España Collection.

The Tyranny of Chronos can be viewed at the exhibition hall in the bank's Cibeles offices (Alcalá 48, Madrid) from 27 November 2024 to 29 March 2025. Opening hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11 am – 2 pm and 4 pm – 8 pm. Admission to the exhibition is free. Prior booking is required. Guided tours will be held on Wednesdays from 6 to 7 pm and Saturdays from 11 am to 12 pm, with special tours for family groups on Saturdays from 12:15 to 1:15 pm.