One of Panerai’s most complicated movements is at the core of a work of art on show at a major European art event currently under way in Switzerland.

American painter and sculptor Jon Kessler has used Panerai’s P.2005/T as part of his concept clock titled 'The World Is Cuckoo (Clock)’ currently on show at Manifesta 11. 

The P.2005/T movement is one of the most complicated and refined mechanical calibres ever created in-house by the watchmaker.

A European bienniale focusing on contemporary art, Manifesta 11 opened in Zurich on June 9 and runs until September 18.

For the 2016 edition, Manifesta commissioned 30 international artists to explore and interpret the biennale’s theme ‘What People Do for Money: Some Joint Ventures’. 

For its collaboration with Kessler, Panerai’s manufacture based in Neuchâtel developed a special version of the P.2005/T movement.

The hand-wound movement features the special tourbillon regulator patented by Panerai and appears in this artwork as a sophisticated skeletonised version, with titanium bridges and plates. 

The fine skeletonising enables the details of the movement to be admired such as the winding and unwinding of the spring inside each barrel, the intricate interconnection of the wheel work and in particular the rotation of the tourbillon cage. The power reserve generated by the calibre is transferred to a pinion which is directly linked to the transmission shaft of Kessler’s work. 

Hence the watchmaker’s craft lies at the core, becoming the catalyst for the piece with its power providing the beating heart that gives life to Kessler’s mechanical creation.

“The clock does not tell the time but tells a story,” says Kessler. “The clock relays the visual story of a cuckoo which has lost the ability to fly. The sense of loss and its attempt at regaining its evolutionary inheritance will communicate a poignant portrait of this fragile moment of anxiety, loss and unease. Past, present, and future interrelate in this collaboration, as older traditions such as watchmaking, musical boxes and early cinema (in the form of a zoetrope) combine with video surveillance and drone technologies.”

Manifesta was conceived in the early 1990s as a nomadic, European biennial of contemporary art and takes place every two years in a different European city. Along with the Venice Biennale and documenta in Kassel, it is one of the foremost art events in Europe.

The eleventh edition is curated by Christian Jankowski. Under the title ‘What People Do for Money: Some Joint Ventures’, artists are brought together with representatives from various Zurich-based professions.

‘The world is Cuckoo (Clock)’ is on show for the entire duration of Manifesta 11 at Les Ambassadeurs, Bahnhofstrasse 64, Panerai’s dealer in Zurich.