Marc Gauthier

Land Art is an artistic movement that began in the 60’s and the 70’s. One of its main characteristics is that it combines landscape and work of art.

One of the best-known art pieces of that movement is Spiral Jetty by USA artist Robert Smithson. Like its name suggests, the work is a spiral jetty that projects into Utah’s Great Salt Lake.

[Image : Spiral Jetty, Robert Smithson, taken April 17th, 2004, Wikipedia]

As years passed by, human activity and climate changes transformed the land sculpture. Incidently, it once was completly covered by water.

[Image: Google Earth]

Since February of 2008, there’s been a wave of support for the work. It appears that an oil company would like to drill too close, according to bloggers around the world. Since landscape plays an important role in this type of project, opposition sprung rapidly to any transformation in the near environment.

The first strike came from the Friends of The Great Salt Lake and the widow of the artist, Nancy Holt. An email campaign proved successful and sent thousands of emails to the Utah authorities, delaying the analysis of the project by weeks.

[Image: Google Earth]

However, in almost none of the writings on this matter do we find an analysis of the artist’s intents. Kudos to Greg Allen for taking the time to write on this matter. He found that industrial landscape was part of the scenery at the time of conception. This heritage was then taken away and quickly erased from memories, even by the artist.

Montreal Daily Le Devoir printed on March 21st that the oil and mining corporation behind the purposed drilling was a Canadian corporation.

This past Thursday, the New York Times published another article on the controversy after their February editorial.

The debate still rages….

Must-read:
* Greg Allen’s blog on the artist’s intents in the 70’s
* NYT February editorial
* French article by Le Devoir presenting the Canadian company involved
* New March article by the NYT

(Press Release) - Two major provincially owned corporations, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal and Télé-Québec, are pooling their expertise to produce, broadcast and exhibit a series of video spot artworks by some of Québec’s most promising young artists.

The two institutions have developed an ideal scenario for showcasing the works of ten outstanding Québec artists who were each commissioned to create a one-minute video spot artwork. The very nature of the video medium means that these works can be shown in both exhibition and television format. Starting May 14, 2008, they will be broadcast over the airwaves of Télé-Québec. Then, from May 24 to September 7, 2008, they will be presented as part of the first Triennial of Québec Art at the Musée d’art contemporain.

Marc Mayer, Director of the Musée d’art contemporain, and Michèle Fortin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Télé-Québec, are delighted to see this innovative joint project, dedicated entirely to the creative endeavour, come to fruition. According to Marc Mayer, “this terrific project allows us to move beyond the places usually associated with contemporary art and promote the visual arts in the media.” For her part, Michèle Fortin is proud of this groundbreaking partnership and the fact that Télé-Québec airwaves will offer an additional cultural showcase for the works of Québec artists.

After the Triennial, the works will join the Musée d’art contemporain collection and become part of our collective heritage. These art videos will also be added to the catalogue of Télé-Québec, which may rebroadcast them at a later date.

The works and the names of their creators will be announced at a joint press conference to mark the project launch on Wednesday, May 14, 2008, at 10:30 a.m.

Could videogames bring us the design of tomorrows’s human habitat? That’s at least the feeling one gets after watching submissions from SCIFI and the Seoul Association of Architects for a new building on the Huan River. Their arcology reminds me of the ones provided in Simcity 2000.