Stonehenge in the polder

In 1971, leading Land Art artists from the Netherlands and the United States were invited to create site specific works throughout the Netherlands. Morris realised his artwork in the dunes near Velsen. After this exhibition the work was dismantled and a year later a new location was found in Flevoland. The new, vast polder landscape was an extremely suitable spot for large-scale, monumental Land Art projects. For this reason the engineers of the Rijksdienst Ijsselmeerpolders (RIJP), the predecessor to Rijkswaterstaat, made available a plot of land for Morris' Observatorium in 1977. (1)

Observatorium consists of two concentric earth walls. Within these circles three V-span openings were made casting a view at the endless, open polder landscape. Through the middle steel visor one can see the sun rise at the beginning of spring and autumn, when day and night are equally long. On both sides of this visor, on the northeast and southeast sides of the circles, there are two stone wedges. Through the wegde on the east side you can see the sun rise on 21 June, the longest day. The sunrise seen through the visor on the west side, signals winter and the longest night on 21 December. Although relatively little time has passed on the land of Flevoland's newly created polders, the subject of Morris' Land Art project is the passing of time. (2)

Just like other artists in the seventies, Morris was fascinated by prehistoric monuments. In the period that Morris designed the Observatorium, Stonehenge (Wiltshire, Great Britain) became an important place of pilgrimage. The Observatorium evokes spirituality and mystery. By creating a modern version of the prehistoric megalithic monument of Stonehenge, Morris offers Lelystad a place for new rituals with age-old and universal associations. (3) Robert Morris is an important and versatile artist and art critic. In the sixties he abandoned the traditional media and began working with more ephemeral materials such as mirrors, textile, waste matter, steam and earth. (4) Morris specialised in performance art, installations and Land Art. He is considdered to be one of the main theoreticians of Minimalism but also has made an important contribution to the Land Art movement that priginated in America in the 1960s and '70s.

Eva van Diggelen

(1) Martine Spanjers & Annick Kleizen (ed.), (2007), De Collectie Flevoland (The Flevoland Collection), p. 457-459. Museum De Paviljoens.
(2) Amy Dempsey, (2006), Destination Art, p. 114-115
(3) Each year on a Saturday morning around 21 June the Stiching Zonnewende Flevoland (Solstice Flevoland Foundation) organises the Sunsation Festival at the Observatorium of Robert Morris. During the festival the summer solstice is celebrated through poetry, music, theatre and visual arts. For more information: www.festivalsunsation.nl
(4) Jeffrey Kastner & Brian Wallis, (1998), Land and Environmental Art, p. 292

Robert Morris, Observatorium (Observatory)
1931, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Observatorium (Observatory, 1971–1977) [first executed in Santpoort-Velsen in 1971]
Earth, water, grass, shells, steel, Bavarian granite, wood
Circumference of 91 m
Location: Lelystad / Swifterbant, Swifterringweg, parcel G 64
The Flevo Landscape Collection