James Turrell: Skyspace The other Horizon

James Turrell’s Skyspace The Other Horizon consists of a walk-in chamber with a roof opening that reveals a diffusely shimmering section of the sky. The most impressive effects are achieved at twilight. Turrell stipulated a precise time frame for visiting the installation, that was created especially for the MAK: from 90 minutes before sundown to nightfall.

Before the visitor’s eye, the Skyspace appears to bridge the distance between heaven and earth, rendering the inner horizon of the chamber congruent with the geographical horizon outside.

„The Skyspaces are, basically, Structural Cuts, that are completely above the horizon line. The openings of all Skyspaces cut through ceiling and roof, though the roof may be slanted. These pieces deal with the juncture of the interior space and the space outside by bringing the space of the sky down to the plane of the ceiling. They create a space that is completely open to the sky, yet seems enclosed. The sense of closure at the juncture appears to be a glassy film stretched across the opening, with an indefinable space beyond this transparencey that changes with sky conditions and sun angles.“ (James Turrell)

The US-American artist James Turrell works with light as his medium, visualizing its material qualities, its delicate physicality, in the form of complex “light spaces.” These are “aesthetic spaces” into which one enters and which—constructed of the interplay of distance, illusion, and perception—caress and envelop both body and vision.

James Turrell’s Skyspace The Other Horizon was opened in the park of the MAK Branch Geymüllerschlössel on 26 November 2004, since when it has been a permanent installation there. It may be visited during the Geymüllerschlössel’s opening hours.


MAK Branch Geymüllerschlössel,
Pötzleinsdorferstraße 102, 1180 Vienna