Exhibition:
The Kunsthaus Zürich is home to one of Switzerland’s most important art collections, with around 4,000 paintings and sculptures as well as 95,000 prints and drawings from the 13th century to the present day. Around 10% of them are on permanent display.
Special exhibition:
THE 2000 SCULPTURE
Walter De Maria’s space-filling installation
Until 20.02.2022
The space-filling work comprising a total of 2,000 plaster rods is being shown again at the Kunsthaus Zürich for the first time in 20 years.
Dynamism and tension
‘The 2000 Sculpture’ by Walter De Maria (1935–2013) is one of the largest horizontal sculptures designed to be shown indoors anywhere in the world. It comprises a total of 2,000 white plaster rods each 50 cm long and 18 cm high. Despite their identical dimensions, the individual elements are different and have five, seven or nine edges. They are laid out on a surface covering 500 square metres, in a total of 20 rows each with 100 rods. Their arrangement follows a specific rhythm: 5–7–9–7–5–5–7–9–7–5. The result is a kind of herringbone pattern, with the rods seeming to move towards or away from the viewer, depending on where they are standing. This creates a tension between predictable regularity and individual perception that is underscored by the light and space surrounding the arrangement.
