Antony Gormley
Horizon Field

Antony Gormley: Horizon Field
A Landscape Installation in the High Alps of
Vorarlberg, Austria

The Kunsthaus Bregenz and the British artist Antony Gormley (born in 1950)
are realising a unique project in the mountains of Vorarlberg. Horizon Field
will be the first art project of its kind erected in the mountains and the largest
landscape intervention in Austria to date.
Horizon Field consists of 100 life-size, solid cast iron figures of the human
body spread over an area of 150 square kilometers in the communities of
Mellau, Schoppernau, Schröcken, Warth, Mittelberg, Lech, Klösterle, and
Dalaas. The work forms a horizontal line at 2,039 meters above sea level.
This height has no specific metaphorical or thematic relevance in the
placement of the statues. It is an altitude that is readily accessible but at the
same time lies beyond the realm of everyday life.
According to the artist: “Horizon Field asks: Where does the human project fit
within the evolution of life on this planet? The works form a field in which
living bodies and active minds are involved in measuring the space and
distance through the field of these static iron bodies, and of course both
skiers and hikers will be part of this. This installation recognises the deep
connection between social and geological territory; between landscape and
memory.”

Antony Gormley on Horizon Field
“In presenting these obdurate, earth-bound but earth-witnessing markers in
space and time, the installation puts 100 industrially produced artifacts within
an elemental world which is far from the contextualising influences of the
museum. It asks basic questions: who are we, what are we, where do we
come from and to where are we headed?
This sculptural ensemble recognizes the need for collective futures built on
the models of small-scale sustainable communities such as those of the
Walsers in the high Alps. The need for the radical revisioning of cultural
expression within a new understanding of a homeostatic biosphere is at the
heart of this project. I would confidently propose that it is important not just
for the region, for Austria but for all sentient beings travelling on this planet.”
Antony Gormley, April 2010

Presented by
Kunsthaus Bregenz