Press release  | July 18, 2024

Land Art Lives discusses the future of land art

First international conference on land art taking place in the Netherlands

On October 3, 2024, Kunstmuseum M. in the Netherlands is organizing Land Art Lives, an international conference on land art. The day will focusses on the future of land art as a multifaceted and complex art form. The program features several international speakers, including Humberto Moro of the Dia Art Foundation, Britta Peters of Urbane Künste Ruhr and Lisa Le Feuvre of the Holt/Smithson Foundation.

Central Topics

Why is land art particularly still relevant today? What are its new manifestations? How do we deal with these often impermanent works of art? And how does land art shed light on the urgent ecological and social of today? Through the Land Art Lives program, Kunstmuseum M. and Land Art Flevoland will jointly investigate these questions at the international conference on October 3, 2024 in Lelystad, the Netherlands. 

International conference

The conference will feature several international speakers, including Humberto Moro of the Dia Art Foundation, Lisa Le Feuvre of Holt/Smithson Foundation, Britta Peters of Urbane Künste Ruhr and Anja Novak of the University of Amsterdam. Parallel working sessions on the future of land art will take place in the afternoon with Benno Tempel (Museum Kröller Müller), Simone Vermaat (Cultural Heritage Agency) Orlando Maaike Gouwenberg (Sonsbeek Foundation) and many other specialists in the field of land art.

Inspiring pre-program

In the run-up to this conference, interested parties can participate in an inspiring pre-program with in-depth activities about the future of land art in Flevoland, the Netherlands and the rest of the world. These events will look at current issues surrounding land art from different perspectives: from political to practical, from historical to policy-related.

The pre-program includes a meeting on art in public space through a heritage lens in collaboration with the Cultural Heritage Agency in June, an exploration of new forms of land art in Flevoland in July, and a session on the colonial dimension of Dutch land art in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam in September. The results of these sessions will be presented at the conference. The knowledge gained will be kept alive on a new online platform for land art: landartlives.nl. 

What is land art?

Land art is an idea, impulse or movement that utilizes the landscape as a place for artistic creation. The early era of land art was closely associated with the anti-institutional ethos of the 1970s, as well as other art forms stemming from it, including performance, minimalism, conceptual art, and new media. Since then, the institutions that artists opposed at the time have embraced land art. The genre has evolved into a form of commissioned art, and its ideas have evolved accordingly. Meanwhile, a history, a canon, and a vibrant, multifaceted, and developing practice characterise the field.

Famous land art works in the Netherlands include Broken Circle/Spiral Hill by Robert Smithson in Emmen, Observatory by Robert Morris, De Groene Kathedraal (Green Cathedral) by Marinus Boezem, Polderland Garden of Love and Fire by Daniel Libeskind and Sea Level by Richard Serra in the province of Flevoland, and Celestial Vault by James Turrell in The Hague.

About Land Art Lives

Land Art Lives is a program of Kunstmuseum M. in close cooperation with Land Art Flevoland. Partners include Stroom Den Haag, Rijksdienst voor Cultureel Erfgoed, Holt/Smithson Foundation, Land Art Contemporary, FlevoLAB, the Institut Français and the University of Amsterdam. The Land Art Lives program is the first step towards a national knowledge center for land art: a place for exchange, research, inspiration and development aimed at owners, makers, clients, knowledge seekers and knowledge providers in the field of land art.

Practical information

Date: Thursday October 3, 2024 
Time: 10:00 (walk-in 09:30) to 17:00 hrs, including vegetarian lunch and drinks afterwards 
Location: Agora Theater, Lelystad (500 meters from railway station Lelystad Centrum) 
Cost: €75.00 per person (including lunch); students pay €25.00 on presentation of a valid student card 
Registration: via landartlives.nl