The Unwanted Boulder: An audio documentary about Smithson’s Broken Circle/Spiral Hill in The Netherlands

We are very happy to announce the launch The Unwanted Boulder, an audio documentary exploring Robert Smithson’s  1971 earthwork Broken Circle/Spiral Hill, commissioned in partnership with Land Art Contemporary. The audio documentary associatively explores the genesis of Broken Circle/Spiral Hill, which is located a sand quarry near Emmen in The Netherlands.

Narrated by musician Lee Ranaldo, The Unwanted Boulder has been created by Geert van de Wetering. The listener travels through Robert Smithson's world of art and ideas and his struggle with a huge, millennia-old boulder at the center of the artwork. Poet Iduna Paalman has created a new poem titled My Rock for this production, giving a voice to the unwanted boulder. Anja Novak, art historian and contributor to our Scholarly Text program, and our Executive Director Lisa Le Feuvre reflect on Smithson's work and ideas, while Tim Gunther interprets Smithson's voice and reads excerpts from his essays and interviews.

The Unwanted Boulder can be downloaded on podcast apps from December 1, 2022:
https://brokencircle.nl/the-unwanted-boulder

Credits for The Unwanted Boulder

Production and direction: Geert van de Wetering.

Narrator: Lee Ranaldo.

My Rock was written by Iduna Paalman, translated, and recited by Megan Garr.

Tim Gunther performed the voice of Robert Smithson.

Mixing and mastering by Arno Peeters.

The audio documentary is part of the program 50 years of Broken Circle/Spiral Hill. It has been generously supported by Municipality of Emmen, Holt/Smithson Foundation, Province of Drenthe, Prince Bernhard Culture Fund and Mondriaan Fund, and led by Anne Reenders of Land Art Contemporary Foundation.

Robert Smithson, Broken Circle / Spiral Hill (1971)
Photograph: Jan Niks, 1971
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Archived News

Films by Holt and Smithson on view at The Museum of Modern Art

Three films by Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson are currently on view at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in collection gallery 411 of the David Geffen Wing. This presentation focuses on Spiral Jetty (1970), Swamp (1971), and Sun Tunnels (1978). Newly restored scans of the first two works are presented as part of a collaboration between Holt/Smithson Foundation and MoMA to preserve their moving-image work.

Chapter Nine of Tuesday Texts

Throughout February 2026, we are publishing the ninth chapter of our Tuesday Text Series as part of our ongoing Scholarly Text Program, which invites thinkers to focus on a single artwork by Holt and/or Smithson. Developed as a tool for researchers at all stages, the Scholarly Text Program aims to publish two essays on each work, presenting differing opinions and approaches and drawing connections to topics that range from geology and ecology to poetry, architecture, public art, sculpture, drawing, film, philosophy, site, and

"Nancy Holt: Light and Shadow Poetics" at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles

What does it mean to notice how we see? "Nancy Holt: Light and Shadow Poetics" at the MAK Center at the Schindler House in Los Angeles offers an encounter where art and architecture shape perception together. This exhibition to brings Holt’s work into a responsive dialogue with the Schindler House, inviting visitors to experience art and architecture as partners in seeing.

Nancy Holt concrete poem on show in Paris at Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles

Nancy Holt started making art in 1966, and her first works took the form of concrete poems: artworks testing the structure, content, and form of language. A key concrete poem, "The World Though a Circle," from 1972 is currently on show in the exhibition Deep Fields at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles in Paris until March 23, 2026.

Nancy Holt's Starfire acquired by Powder Art Foundation

We are very pleased to share Nancy Holt’s 1986 sculpture "Starfire" has found a permanent home in the collection of Powder Art Foundation in Eden, Utah. Powder Art Foundation is an outdoor art museum that works closely with Dia Art Foundation. "Starfire" comprises eight pits arranged to mirror the Big Dipper constellation and the North Star. The flames create a terrestrial map of the night sky, bringing the energy of distant stars down to earth.