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Sunday October 12^th, 2025; in Royal Theater and on the Playground Vrijheerenberg, Heerlen

-> 1pm symposium Royal Theater
-> 4.30pm unveiling on location (Playground Vrijheerenberg)
-> 9pm film programme Royal Theater

Robert Smithson, Heerlen Soil and Mirrors, 1969 event on October 12^th, 2025 looks back at the moment that American artist Robert Smithson commissioned in the Beaujean sand quarry in 1969. International speakers such as Lisa Le Feuvre, Executive Director of the Holt/Smithson Foundation will speak at the Royal Theater Heerlen and alderman of Culture Jordy Clemens will unveil a marker on the exact location of the artwork at that time, on the Vrijheerenberg field Maria Christinawijk. A film programme completes the day at Royal Theater Heerlen.

In the spring of 1969, a delegation commissioned by the American artist Robert Smithson gathered in the former Beaujean quarry to collect yellow sand and earth from the Beaujean quarry. A temporary work of art was created according to Robert Smithson’s drawings, using sand, earth and mirrors. A section of the material extracted from the quarry was transported to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and exhibited in the influential exhibition Op Losse Schroeven; Situaties en Cryptostructuren.

This event in spring 1969 still marks one of these rare moments where the international avant-garde in the arts literally set foot on the Limburg landscape. The Sunday 12th program of Heerlen Soil and Mirrors honors this remarkable momentum. It revives this intangible heritage and adds a new narrative about art, ecology and landscape to Heerlen’s past in the context of the Heritage Year 2025.

Information about the artwork and a report of this day will remain available digitally on the website of Greylight Projects Heerlen. The initiators of this event are curator Lene ter Haar, artist Jean Bernard Koeman and Wouter Huis, artist and director of the Greylight Projects foundation.

Special thanks for the financial support of the Rosas Donamus Foundation and Jaar van het Heerlens Erfgoed 2025 (Year of Heerlen Heritage 2025) and for the generous cooperation of the Holt/Smithson Foundation (New Mexico, USA), Josef Albers Museum Bottrop (Germany), the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Dutch Land Art Contemporary.

TIP: Simultaneous to this day-long program, a major retrospective of Robert Smithson in Europa will be on view at the Josef Albers Museum in Bottrop (Germany) from the 27th of September 2025 until the 26th of February 2026.

>>> The unveiling is open to the public, no registration required.
>>> Tickets for the film night can be obtained from the website of Filmhuis de Spiegel.
>>> Register on the website for the afternoon of lecture and discussion at the Royal theatre: