A ground-breaking documentary feature film, a first of its kind championing land art from the southern hemisphere, is set to captivate audiences. Directed and produced by Cape Town-based filmmaker and founder-owner of CineSouth Studios, Victor van Aswegen, Sculpting This Earth follows Africa’s foremost land artist, Strijdom van der Merwe, over four consecutive seasons as he creates land art in various spectacular settings across southern Africa.
“Mostly created in remote natural settings, ephemeral and not intended to be transplanted to galleries, urban centres and the commercial mainstream, land art inevitably relies on documentation through photography and film. The documentary follows the artist as he travels to increasingly remote locations to work in the harsh uninhabited landscapes and vast open spaces of Africa’s interior,” explains Victor.
Whether it’s pristine lagoon beaches, the arid Karoo or further inland, Sculpting This Earth captures Strijdom working with materials he finds on site. “In an age when many people globally feel cut off from nature and there is a widespread sense that the natural world is under threat, the film will move the audience with a sense of reconnecting to nature.”
Principal photography on Sculpting This Earth was in the Jonkershoek Valley outside Stellenbosch in 2020 followed by Churchhaven on the Langebaan lagoon, and in the vast expanses of the Tankwa Karoo in 2021.
The world premiere of Sculpting This Earth will take place on Friday, 26 August, at Die Kunshuis in the Riebeek Valley as part of Solo Studios Intimate Art Encounters.
Click here to purchase tickets, programme details, and accommodation for the event.