Catalogue Horizon, Interrupted

The question of the horizon is one of the recurring themes in the work of conceptual artist Jan Dibbets. In this work, the artist takes two colourful geometric photographs of horizons, a landscape and a seascape, and repeatedly juxtaposes them in various ways that divide the horizon. He glues the photos together in such a way that the horizon above the sea continues straight into the horizon above land. The horizon thus becomes simply and merely an optical illusion.
The Horizon iteration shown in this exhibition is one of many, in which the horizons of the land and the sea are segregated, and whereas the sky horizon seems to be continuous, it's still interrupted with a blank space. This is one of many versions that the artist has been working on since the 1970s.
In this body of work, Dibbets searches for the perfect horizon, which has many meanings for him: the horizon as a border, landmark, optical illusion, and as a reference to classical Dutch landscape painting.

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