Exhibition

Nancy Holt: Circles of Light

Experiments with Sound, Image, Objects 1966–1986

Nancy Holt, Electrical System, 1982, installation view (detail), Gropius Bau, 2024 © Holt/Smithson Foundation, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, courtesy: Sprüth Magers, photo: Luis Kürschner

22.3.21.7.2024

Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri 11:00–19:00
Sat, Sun 10:00–19:00
Tue closed

Gropius Bau

15 / reduced 10

Tickets

Over the course of five decades, Nancy Holt explored how we perceive our environment and how we attempt to understand our place on the surface of this planet. From March 2024, the Gropius Bau presents Circles of Light, the artist’s most comprehensive survey exhibition in Germany to date. It includes film, video, photography, sound works, concrete poetry, sculptures and expansive installations as well as drawings and documentation from over 25 years.

Digital Guide

Explore the work of Nancy Holt with detailed background information and images of her life and work process.

Exhibition texts

Read all exhibition texts during or after your visit and learn more about the works on show.

Events

Programme Overview

All events of the public programme can be found in our overview.

About the exhibition

In her artistic practice, Nancy Holt reimagined site-specific installations and ways of working with natural and artificial light. She began focusing on ecological aspects at an early stage and incorporated the earth’s rotation, astronomy, time and space into her sculptures, constantly challenging us to look beyond what we think we know. Holt’s working process will have a particularly tangible presence in the exhibition at the Gropius Bau through texts and recordings by the artist.

“Over the years these technological systems have become necessary for our everyday existence, yet they are usually hidden behind walls or beneath the earth and relegated to the realm of the unconscious. We have trouble owning up to our almost total dependence on them.”
— Nancy Holt

Nancy Holt, Electrical System, 1982, installation view (detail), Gropius Bau, 2024

© Holt/Smithson Foundation, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, courtesy: Sprüth Magers, photo: Luca Girardini
Nancy Holt, Mirrors of Light II, 1974, installation view, Gropius Bau, 2024

© Holt/Smithson Foundation, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, courtesy: Sprüth Magers, photo: Luca Girardini
Nancy Holt, Light and Shadow, Photo Drawings, 1978, installation view, Gropius Bau, 2024

© Holt/Smithson Foundation, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, courtesy: Sprüth Magers, photo: Luca Girardini
Nancy Holt, Electrical System, 1982, installation view, Gropius Bau, 2024

© Holt/Smithson Foundation, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, courtesy: Sprüth Magers, photo: Luca Girardini
Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci, 1972, installation view, Gropius Bau, 2024

© Holt/Smithson Foundation, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, courtesy: Sprüth Magers, photo: Luca Girardini
Nancy Holt, Electrical Lightning for Reading Room, 1985, installation view, Gropius Bau, 2024

© Holt/Smithson Foundation, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, courtesy: Sprüth Magers, photo: Luca Girardini

Nancy Holt, Electrical System, 1982, installation view (detail), Gropius Bau, 2024

© Holt/Smithson Foundation, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, courtesy: Sprüth Magers, photo: Luca Girardini
Nancy Holt, Mirrors of Light II, 1974, installation view, Gropius Bau, 2024

© Holt/Smithson Foundation, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, courtesy: Sprüth Magers, photo: Luca Girardini
Nancy Holt, Light and Shadow, Photo Drawings, 1978, installation view, Gropius Bau, 2024

© Holt/Smithson Foundation, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, courtesy: Sprüth Magers, photo: Luca Girardini
Nancy Holt, Electrical System, 1982, installation view, Gropius Bau, 2024

© Holt/Smithson Foundation, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, courtesy: Sprüth Magers, photo: Luca Girardini
Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci, 1972, installation view, Gropius Bau, 2024

© Holt/Smithson Foundation, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, courtesy: Sprüth Magers, photo: Luca Girardini
Nancy Holt, Electrical Lightning for Reading Room, 1985, installation view, Gropius Bau, 2024

© Holt/Smithson Foundation, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, courtesy: Sprüth Magers, photo: Luca Girardini

Nancy Holt, Electrical System, 1982, installation view (detail), Gropius Bau, 2024

© Holt/Smithson Foundation, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, courtesy: Sprüth Magers, photo: Luca Girardini
Nancy Holt, Mirrors of Light II, 1974, installation view, Gropius Bau, 2024

© Holt/Smithson Foundation, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, courtesy: Sprüth Magers, photo: Luca Girardini
Nancy Holt, Light and Shadow, Photo Drawings, 1978, installation view, Gropius Bau, 2024

© Holt/Smithson Foundation, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, courtesy: Sprüth Magers, photo: Luca Girardini
Nancy Holt, Electrical System, 1982, installation view, Gropius Bau, 2024

© Holt/Smithson Foundation, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, courtesy: Sprüth Magers, photo: Luca Girardini
Nancy Holt, Locators with Loci, 1972, installation view, Gropius Bau, 2024

© Holt/Smithson Foundation, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, courtesy: Sprüth Magers, photo: Luca Girardini
Nancy Holt, Electrical Lightning for Reading Room, 1985, installation view, Gropius Bau, 2024

© Holt/Smithson Foundation, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024, courtesy: Sprüth Magers, photo: Luca Girardini

Curated by Clara Meister and Lisa Le Feuvre
In collaboration with Holt/SmithsonFoundation

To the imprint

Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation

With thanks to Sprüth Magers

Partners: Wall Dussmann Bouvet
Media partners: Tagesspiegel Monopol BerlinArt Link Madame NuméroBerlin gallerytalk.net rbbKultur arte flair H.O.M.E. Artsof the Working Class Rausgegangen