Jo Niemeyer
"20 steps around the globe..."
Photographs, 20x24", 2006
Literally skirting the earth full circle, Jo Niemeyer's land-art project comprises 20 stainless-steel pillars being implanted at precisely computed locations in different countries on various continents. Distances between them and their exact alignment have been determined on the basis of the earth's circum-ference by breaking the full course down, systematically and dynamically, into 20 increments growing by virtue of logarithmic progression, so that even though the scale is all the while retained the line-up finally reaches a total stretch of 40023 kilometers, thus ,,circumnavigating" the globe. The key to the idea is the golden section whose mathematical formula (1/2 ?5-1/2 = 0,6180339...) has for long embodied the very essence of harmony and aesthetics in the fine arts and the sciences.
Jo Niemeyer, artist
Statement about my art:
"The basis of my work as an artist is the connection between art and nature, between the artistic action and the experimental work. This means that my artistic production which is fundamentally based on natural principals and measures is nothing more than a sequence of experimental steps which implies given and objective criteria and subjective factors in the same way. On the one hand my work is based on events in nature and civilization as well as on communication with colleagues of other disciplines. The dual pole mathematics - art is for me not only the basis of my experience but at the time also my central theme. My main interest is directed to the perception of space, time, distances and proportion and forms the synthesis between art and nature which implies in the end a dialogue between man and nature..."