As the first major museum exhibition on Land Art, "Ends of the Earth" provides the most comprehensive historical overview of this art movement to date. Land Art used the earth as its material and the land as its medium, thereby creating works beyond the familiar spatial framework of the art system. 

The exhibition presents nearly 200 works by more than 100 artists from all over the world. Even before the emergence of the movement in the 1960s, artists from the most varied locations around the globe were increasingly moved to use land as an artistic medium. In a basic sense, this also included the examination of the nature of the earth as a planet. Yves Klein, for instance, wondered what the earth looked like from space. In 1961, he transformed his vision that the dominant color from this perspective would be blue, and that all manmade boundaries could be overcome with this color, into his series "Planetary Reliefs." 

The artists often worked under the open sky, making productive use of the fact that the great outdoors posed other conditions for a work's lifespan than enclosed spaces did. Some works only existed for the short time of their creation, like Judy Chicago's ephemeral works consisting of colored flames and smoke. For ten weeks, the cliffs along Little Bay, Sydney, were packed in synthetic fabric and rope for Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Wrapped Coast – One Million Square Feet, which, like many other works of Land Art, was enormous in scale. Another famous work of similar proportions was Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson; on the Great Salt Lake in Utah, USA, the artist built a 1,500-foot long spiral-shaped jetty made of material found on site. 

Ends of the Earth – Land Art bis 1974, Installationsansicht, Haus der Kunst, 2012, Foto Maximilian Geuter
Ends of the Earth – Land Art bis 1974, Installationsansicht, Haus der Kunst, 2012, Foto Maximilian Geuter

Land Art artists were fascinated by remote locations like deserts or transported the conditions of specific places into exhibition spaces: The Japanese artist group "i" moved four truckloads of gravel on a conveyor belt into an exhibition space and arranged it into a pile there. Alice Aycock fills a minimalistic grid with wet clay. With Hog Pasture: Survival Piece #1, not only will new material – in this case, a green pasture – make on selected occasions its way into the museum but a live domestic pig as well, which will pasture on the meadow from time to time.

Language, film, and photography played a central role in Land Art's creation and development. Magazines and television stations commissioned art works and were the first to publish these. For eight consecutive days in October 1969, the WDR television network interrupted its regularly scheduled programs for a few seconds and presented the eight photographs of Keith Arnatt's Self-Burial, which depicted the artist gradually sinking into the ground. 

Following the presentation of Jean Tinguely's self-destructing sculpture Hommage à New York, the NBC television network commissioned the artist to create a work. In collaboration with Niki de Saint-Phalle, Tinguely made a large-scale kinetic sculpture out of waste that was used in choreographed explosions taking place southwest of Las Vegas near a nuclear test site. 

Many other works touched on the subject of the “tortured earth," as Isamu Noguchi described it. The artists examined the wounds and scars that humans inflict on the planet earth, whether by the war machinery (Robert Barry, Isamu Noguchi), dictatorships (Artur Barrio), nuclear testing (Heinz Mack, Jean Tinguely, Adrian Piper) or colonization (Yitzhak Danziger). The media's intensive coverage of Land Art activities led to unusual and complex contributions. Receptive to Land Art's demand for a sensitive consciousness regarding the conditions of production, presentation and dissemination of art, they also gave expression to the technological, social and political conditions of the time. The time period covered in "Ends of the Earth" spans the 1960s to 1974, when, in the context of Land Art, movements such as Conceptual Art, Minimal Art, Happenings, Performance Art, and Arte povera, became more distinct and began to diverge. 

The exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (MOCA).

Charles Simonds Landscape <->Body<-> Dwelling, 1973 Filmstill 16 mm film transferred to DVD color and sound 7 minutes Collection of the artist © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012
Charles Simonds Landscape <->Body<-> Dwelling, 1973 Filmstill 16 mm film transferred to DVD color and sound 7 minutes Collection of the artist © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012
Judy Chicago Immolation IV from the Women and Smoke Series © Judy Chicago, 1972 Flares Performed with Faith Wilding in the California desert Photo courtesy of Through the Flower housed at the Penn State University Archives
Judy Chicago Immolation IV from the Women and Smoke Series © Judy Chicago, 1972 Flares Performed with Faith Wilding in the California desert Photo courtesy of Through the Flower housed at the Penn State University Archives
Hrein Fridfinsson House Project, 1974 Sixteen color photographs and two texts Photographs: 7 7/8 × 11 7/16 in. (20 × 29 cm) each; texts: 11 5/8 × 8 1/4 in. (29.5 × 21 cm) each Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Hrein Fridfinsson House Project, 1974 Sixteen color photographs and two texts Photographs: 7 7/8 × 11 7/16 in. (20 × 29 cm) each; texts: 11 5/8 × 8 1/4 in. (29.5 × 21 cm) each Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Robert Kinmont 8 Natural Handstands  1969/2009 nine silver gelatin prints 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 in/ 21.5 x 21.5 cm Image courtesy Alexander and Bonin, New York
Robert Kinmont 8 Natural Handstands 1969/2009 nine silver gelatin prints 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 in/ 21.5 x 21.5 cm Image courtesy Alexander and Bonin, New York
Robert Kinmont 8 Natural Handstands (detail)  1969/2009 nine silver gelatin prints 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 in/ 21.5 x 21.5 cm Image courtesy Alexander and Bonin, New York
Robert Kinmont 8 Natural Handstands (detail) 1969/2009 nine silver gelatin prints 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 in/ 21.5 x 21.5 cm Image courtesy Alexander and Bonin, New York
Michael Snow La Région Centrale, 1971 16 mm film transferred to DVD (blackbox projection) 191 minutes
Michael Snow La Région Centrale, 1971 16 mm film transferred to DVD (blackbox projection) 191 minutes
Kristjan Gudmundsson Painting of the specific gravity of the planet Earth, 1972-73 Acrylic on metal 16 1/8 x 16 7/16 x 2 3/4 in. (41 x 41.7 x 7 cm) 507.33 gr/91.760 mm3 Sólveig Magnúsdóttir, Reykjavik
Kristjan Gudmundsson Painting of the specific gravity of the planet Earth, 1972-73 Acrylic on metal 16 1/8 x 16 7/16 x 2 3/4 in. (41 x 41.7 x 7 cm) 507.33 gr/91.760 mm3 Sólveig Magnúsdóttir, Reykjavik
Patricia Johanson Stephen Long, 1968 16mm film transferred to DVD, 1968 Edited by Joanna Alexander, WNET-TV, New York, 2011 5 minutes Museum of Modern Art Film Archive © Patricia Johanson Photo: courtesy the artist
Patricia Johanson Stephen Long, 1968 16mm film transferred to DVD, 1968 Edited by Joanna Alexander, WNET-TV, New York, 2011 5 minutes Museum of Modern Art Film Archive © Patricia Johanson Photo: courtesy the artist
Zorka Saglova Homage to Gustav Obermann, March 1970 Six gelatin-silver prints 15 3/4 × 23 5/8 in. (40 × 60 cm) each Collection of Jan Sagl; Courtesy Jan Sagl
Zorka Saglova Homage to Gustav Obermann, March 1970 Six gelatin-silver prints 15 3/4 × 23 5/8 in. (40 × 60 cm) each Collection of Jan Sagl; Courtesy Jan Sagl
Les Levine "Systems Burnoff x Residual Software," 1969 Installation view Chicago, 1969 1,000 copies each of 31 photographs taken at the March 1969 opening of "Earth Art" at Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY, Jell-O poured on the photographs, and chewing gum attached photos to the wall. Photo:  courtesy of the artist
Les Levine "Systems Burnoff x Residual Software," 1969 Installation view Chicago, 1969 1,000 copies each of 31 photographs taken at the March 1969 opening of "Earth Art" at Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY, Jell-O poured on the photographs, and chewing gum attached photos to the wall. Photo: courtesy of the artist
Helen Mayer Harrison Newton Harrison Hog Pasture: Survival Piece #1, 1970-71 installation view Haus der Kunst photo: Maximilian Geuter
Helen Mayer Harrison Newton Harrison Hog Pasture: Survival Piece #1, 1970-71 installation view Haus der Kunst photo: Maximilian Geuter
Helen Mayer Ha Helen Mayer Harrison Newton Harrison Hog Pasture: Survival Piece #1, 1970-71 installation view Haus der Kunst photo: Maximilian Geuterrrison Newton Harrison Hog Pasture: Survival Piece #1, 1970-71 Hölzerner Container aus Erde und Lichtbox aus gleicher Größe darüber Größe: 121,9 x 243,8 x 365,7 cm Installationsansicht Haus der Kunst Foto: Maximilian Geuter
Helen Mayer Ha Helen Mayer Harrison Newton Harrison Hog Pasture: Survival Piece #1, 1970-71 installation view Haus der Kunst photo: Maximilian Geuterrrison Newton Harrison Hog Pasture: Survival Piece #1, 1970-71 Hölzerner Container aus Erde und Lichtbox aus gleicher Größe darüber Größe: 121,9 x 243,8 x 365,7 cm Installationsansicht Haus der Kunst Foto: Maximilian Geuter
Heinz Mack Tele-Mack, 1968 16mm film transferred to DVD; color and sound 24:35 minutes Production of Saarländischer Rundfunk, author Prof. Heinz Mack, courtesy of Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH © 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, courtesy Archiv Mack
Heinz Mack Tele-Mack, 1968 16mm film transferred to DVD; color and sound 24:35 minutes Production of Saarländischer Rundfunk, author Prof. Heinz Mack, courtesy of Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH © 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, courtesy Archiv Mack
Keith Arnatt Liverpool Beach Burial, 1968 Vintage silver gelatin print, printed by the artist 10 1/4 x 7 1/8 inches Estate of Keith Arnatt, London Photo: courtesy Maureen Paley, London and The Estate of Keith Arnatt
Keith Arnatt Liverpool Beach Burial, 1968 Vintage silver gelatin print, printed by the artist 10 1/4 x 7 1/8 inches Estate of Keith Arnatt, London Photo: courtesy Maureen Paley, London and The Estate of Keith Arnatt
Alice Aycock Clay #2, 1971/2012 1,500 pounds of clay mixed with water in wood frame Each: 48 x 48 x 6 in. (121.92 x 121.92 x 15.24 cm) installation view. photo: Maximilian Geuter.
Alice Aycock Clay #2, 1971/2012 1,500 pounds of clay mixed with water in wood frame Each: 48 x 48 x 6 in. (121.92 x 121.92 x 15.24 cm) installation view. photo: Maximilian Geuter.