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| Robert Smithson (USA, 1938-1973) created Spiral Jetty in April 1970 at Rozel Point on the northern shore of the Great Salt Lake in Utah (USA). Using 7000 tons of basalt rock and earth dug up at the site, the artist produced a jetty measuring over 450 m long by 4.5 m wide that gracefully curls around itself in the lake’s translucent waters. Because the level of the lake varies, the jetty was submerged in 1972 only to surface again in 1999. Spiral Jetty is surely Land Art’s most emblematic work. In 2007 the American filmmaker James Benning (USA, 1942, lives and works in Los Angeles), who is well known for his experimental films dealing mostly with the study of landscapes, devoted a feature-length piece to Smithson’s jetty entitled Spiral Jetty, Casting a Glance. “To experience the jetty one must go often. It is a barometer of daily and yearly cycles… The water may appear blue, red, purple, green, brown, silver or gold. The sound may come from a navy jet, passing geese, converging thunderstorms, a few crickets, or be a silence so still you can hear the blood moving through the veins in your ears.” (James Benning) Jean-Pierre Criqui, art critic and editor in chief of Cahiers du Mnam in Paris, will give a talk on Spiral Jetty. He has written on Robert Smithson, notably in his book Un trou dans la vie. Essais sur l’art depuis 1960 (Desclée de Brouwer, Paris, 2002). Links
: www.robertsmithson.com
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