RICHARD SERRA – THINKING ON YOUR FEET

US American artist and sculptor Richard Serra is planning the creation of a monumental installation for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. The sculptural commission, entitled “The Matter of Time”, is made of seven giant steel structures to curve around a previous piece by Serra called “Snake” that was installed in 1997. It represents the largest work of its kind ever developed for a concrete space. Director Maria Anna Tappeiner, a specialist in artist portraits and art documentaries, follows the development of the piece from drawing board to its final construction.

The work, like its creator, attempts to challenge notions of form and technology on a giant scale. Serra’s aim was that this work would be experienced like a vortex, an unravelling, flowing structure and narrative to create disorientation but also a sense that “It lives, it breathes, it implicates you in the space” – like time itself. The piece, like the film, explores the captivating possibility of holding time still for a while and offers the experience of walking around within it.