Richard Long

His first works consisted of simple walks through meadows, mountain passes, canyons, in almost every continent. The artist does not understand these works, which are first and foremost immersive experiences, as performances but as ‘production’ processes, whose residual artistic objects are photographs, videos, maps and texts. Walking (which is also an elementary form of meditation) across the landscape turns into the signature of his poetics, infused with an ecological vision, which anticipates reflections on the anthropocene, on the critical balance between nature, man and culture, and on the need to restore a direct and respectful contact with the environment.
This almost sacred and devout approach to nature is reflected in the aura of mysticism and spirituality with which his sculptural production is imbued, as in the case of the work he created in the San Gabriel Mountains in southern California. During an immersive walk, Long collected numerous white granite stones, reconfigured into a rectangular strip several metres long. As is often the case with this type of work, the shapes chosen are very simple, ancestral, and recall monumental Neolithic sites where our ancestors gathered for ceremonies and religious rites.