Jan Robert Leegte (NL), Underwater landscape, Trenches, Islands

Underwater landscape, Trenches, Islands (from: Performing a landscape), 2020
Three unique videos of 30 mins.

Rising sea levels, floods, torrential rains, fire- and storm-ravaged landscapes – the transformation of Earth induced by climate change is becoming more and more tangible for everyone. Jan Robert Leegte’s video landscapes throw nature’s uniqueness into sharp relief, as well as its fragility. Displayed at the same level as the Isar river just across the road, the raw power of these works draws the viewer in, as the sound of the sea is not merely heard but beats around one’s entire body.

Leegte has taken a real-time landscape simulator conventionally used in game development and created glimpses of a stormy, flood-battered landscape. This generative landscape is not merely designed to a given scale with static details, but can in theory alter all the time, rather like the near-infinite landscapes seen in the computer game Minecraft. The unfathomable expansiveness of computer simulations has introduced a new habitat for the sublime. But just as a computer-generated landscape can display almost infinite detail, it can also be destroyed at the click of a button.

Leegte’s landscape may seem overwhelming, as the storm sweeps through the trees, the ocean roars and its ruined, Lovecraftian man-made structures are engulfed by the waves. However, Leegte’s pivotal moment in becoming an internet artist was when he uploaded his first HTML file to a webserver, transforming a sketch into a public browser-based installation. Humble beginnings indeed for such dramatic landscapes, perhaps implying that humans can and must determine the direction of innovation.

The artistic career of Jan Robert Leegte spans the evolution of the internet since the first web browsers became publicly available. In 2002, he increasingly focused on bridging online and physical gallery art worlds. His prints, sculpture, installations, drawings and projections often connect to movements like land art, minimalism, performance art and conceptualism. Leegte’s works continue to explore the creative potential of the (networked) computer. The artist first studied architecture at the Technical University of Delft, before switching to fine arts and interaction design at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. He lives and works in Amsterdam. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at Centre Pompidou (Paris); Museum Ludwig (Cologne); Whitechapel Gallery (London); Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; ZKM Karlsruhe; MAAT (Lisbon); and iMAL (Brussels).