Art & culture
Christian Marclay × ECAL: new sequences from a booth archive
A museum’s visitor portraits became material for an exhibition in 2024.
A booth archive contains more than isolated faces. It contains repetition, intervals and possible sequences. Christian Marclay and photography students at ECAL explored those possibilities through the portraits held by Photo Elysée in Lausanne.
The exhibition’s setting
Photo Elysée dates Christian Marclay × ECAL to 29 March–2 June 2024. The museum explains that visitors could leave portraits from its automated studio for a collective archive, and that the project worked with these collected prints.
Evidence: Exhibition archive
An archive becomes material
The museum’s account describes students scanning and transforming the prints into installations. Our reading is that changing the arrangement changes the encounter: portraits made separately can become neighbours, a rhythm or a new sequence. That interpretation does not make the people’s original sessions part of one shared event.
Evidence: Exhibition archive
Keep a private editing trail
When rearranging your own pictures, save the original sequence and an edited copy. Write down which frames you used and where they came from. A collage can be imaginative while its label remains precise. If other people appear, agree the intended audience before sharing the new arrangement.
Sources & further reading
Sources for the specific facts and product descriptions above. Our worked examples, interpretations and practical suggestions are original editorial guidance.
- Photo Elysée — Christian Marclay × ECAL, 2024Exhibition archive