Fuera de campo

Abstract

Pursuing their interest in nature, landscape and ecology, there are many artists who have recently embraced the concept of land art. However, this very category is in need of reappraisal, both to prevent it becoming something of a catch-all term and so that study of it may be resumed and an insight gained into its latest trends. Given this context, the artistic practice must also be viewed as the product of a development and as such, open to fresh analysis. The interpretation deriving from Smithson’s most significant works does not, therefore, in any way resemble the development of certain practices engaged in by Joseph Beuys or the environmental aims propounded by Patricia Johanson. The term “out of field” (hors champ), deriving from the world of sequential arts, is used here to describe the type of pieces in which the spectator, on the basis of the information given to them, is able to perceive that which exists outside the work, that which is invisible to their eyes but not to their understanding. Ultimately, landscape is not understood as an element that is autonomous or remote from the spectator, but is seen as a meeting point, a space where interactions can occur and which transforms art into dialogue.