London’s Institute of Contemporary Art cinema hosted the UK premiere of director James Crump’s film, Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art. In conversation with Stefan Kálmar, director of Artists Space in New York, Crump explains his process behind the film to the audience at the sold-out UK premiere of the film.

Kálmar begins by acknowledging the monumental achievement by Crump. “It’s an amazing achievement, it must have represented hundreds of hours going through the archives. People can probably not even imagine how difficult it is to access those archives, let alone bringing alive the history that has been hidden. Ironically, it seems that all these works historically refuse their own documentation.”

“There is a lot of subterfuge and control by these artists, so I had to work very surreptitiously for a long time. This project gestated for a very long time, like most of my projects, maybe 15 years. The production was only 13 months, but the intellectual work and the digging takes years” explains Crump. Through a difficult interview with artist Michael Heizer in 2003, Crump saw there was a challenge there to tell the story not only of his work, but also of other land artists’ work. The self-created challenge turned into a years-long film production, which Crump describes was created  “against all odds”.

No mean feat, the documentary has chronicled the history of land art to the extent not presented by any filmmaker to this day. The full Q&A between Crump and Kálmar can be heard in the Champ Sound Bar at the top of the web page – click ‘right’ to access the correct channel.

Troublemakers unearths the history of land art in the late 1960s and early 1970s, through hard-to-access archives. With the work now more relevant than ever, the film highlights renowned works such as the Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson, The Lightening Field by Walter De Maria and Double Negative by Michael Heizer.

A cinematic journey, director Crump presents the most significant land art sites in America to viewers. California, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah are all highlighted in their natural beauty and wonder.

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Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art

For more, visit the official site