Robert Smithson die Erfindung der Landschaft = The invention of landscape

Broken Circle/Spiral Hill (in Emmen, Netherlands) is the only earthwork produced by Smithson still in existence outside the United States. As an integral part of these works, Smithson made films that reveal the spatial and environmental context of the work. Aerial shots in a symmetrical pattern were combined with close-ups, documentary footage of the construction of the work and views of the surrounding landscape. In this way, visitors to galleries and museums were introduced to the earthworks produced by Smithson in barely accessible, remote locations. As a result of a tragic aircraft accident during a reconnaissance flight in 1973, Smithson's life and work came to a premature end. Smithson was never able to finish the film about Broken Circle/Spiral Hill. Forty years later, a video incorporating the original film footage is now to be completed on behalf of the Land Art Contemporary program in a collaboration between artist Nancy Holt and curator Theo Tegelaers of SKOR Foundation for Art and Public Domain. Holt currently works with a Dutch team in editing the video Breaking Ground: Broken Circle/Spiral Hill, including the original film footage she shot in 1971, and video recently shot recently in Emmen by a Dutch crew.