SYDNEY.- The MCA reopened on 29 March 2012 following a $53 million redevelopment. It reached 100,000 visitors in the first three weeks, 200,000 visitors in just under seven weeks and when Marking Time, Christian Marclay: The Clock and Local Positioning Systems closed on Sunday, 3 June, 264,625 visitors or over a quarter of a million people had visited. The two busiest days were Thursday 31 May and Sunday 3 June, peaking at respectively 8,233 and 7,509 visitors.

MCA Director Elizabeth Ann Macgregor said: “We are thrilled by the public response. The building expansion does all that we dreamed of, providing a great frame for the art and encouraging people in.”

Of Christian Marclay’s The Clock, MCA Senior Curator Rachel Kent said: “We faced an exciting new challenge by opening The Clock for 24 hours every Thursday to Friday throughout the exhibition season. Week by week, word of mouth spread across Sydney and people came to see what would happen at night, with a particular focus on the midnight hour. It has been enormously satisfying for the MCA, and also for Christian, to see how much people have enjoyed and analysed this extraordinary work during its southern hemisphere premiere.”

With events such as the recently launched MCA ARTBAR driven by Audi that sold out several days before the first night and the 18th Biennale of Sydney coming up in just under a month, the MCA looks forward to welcoming many more visitors, and giving more and more exposure to contemporary art.