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Richard Long
Berlin Circle

26.03.2011 to 31.07.2011

Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart
Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart

Richard Long (*1945, Bristol, England) is one of the leading protagonists of 'land art', along with Michael Heizer, Walter de Maria and Robert Smithson. Coinciding with the first ecological movements in the USA and Europe, land art was first created in the 1960s by artists working concurrently but separately from each other, as a critical reaction to the classical genre of sculpture and the commercial art market.

As the chief figure of land art in England, Long uses the movement of his own body, the act of rambling and walking in the countryside as both the gauge and medium for his art. The centre and inspiration for this exhibition is the eponymous work 'Berlin Circle'. The circle of stone, twelve metres in diameter, laid out on the floor is an important work in the Sammlung Marx and was first unveiled and installed by the artist for the opening of the Hamburger Bahnhof in 1996. It serves as the thematic focal point of today's show.