This exciting new art award has been described by Hugo Burge Foundation Creative Director, broadcaster, author and art historian, Dr James Fox, as 'an unprecedented programme designed to permanently enrich Britain’s cultural landscape'.
The Foundation has created Dent in the Universe to plug the gap in public art funding and to 'facilitate bold, enduring works that wouldn’t otherwise be realised'. It will commission or fund a series of ambitious public artworks across the United Kingdom, every year, in perpetuity.
Established by the late digital entrepreneur and philanthropist Hugo Burge (1972-2023), the Foundation was renamed in his memory in 2024.
Goldsworthy, who lives in Scotland, explains:
"This work came about when visiting the grave of my ex-wife, Judith Dykes, who is buried in Kirkland Cemetery in Dumfries and Galloway. Piles of earth and stones had been heaped by the cemetery wall – left over from burials, a displacement resulting from the exchange between the body and the earth.
“The stones are, for me, a powerful reminder that we are bound to the land - of life and of death, of where we come from and where we return… Gravestones, will be a memorial to those who have gone before me and acknowledges that they are part of the landscape that I work with today."
Goldsworthy presented a sample of the proposed work at his retrospective exhibition last summer. It was one of the most popular art shows of the year in Scotland, with queues forming in its final weeks. Almost 100,000 visitors saw his work during its run.
Goldsworthy did not, however, have the funds required to complete Gravestones.
The Hugo Burge Foundation has now agreed to fund Gravestones over two years as the inaugural Dent in the Universe project. With the first instalment already paid, Goldsworthy has started making this hugely ambitious work, which will see him creating a monumental version of the Gravestones at the foot of the Lowther Hills in Dumfries and Galloway.
Gravestones will be located on a hillside near Moffat in Dumfriesshire, on publicly accessible land provided by The Duke of Buccleuch, supported by Dumfries and Galloway Council.
Visitors will park by an old stone building the interior of which will be constructed from compacted soil collected from local graveyards. Goldsworthy will carve a deep altar-like cavity into one wall.
People will then make a twenty-minute walk up the hill to see Goldsworthy’s artwork. At the summit, visitors will arrive at a 700m2 enclosure surrounded by dry stone walls. The interior will be arranged with rocks collected from all over the region, each from different cemeteries, all of them having made space for a human body.
The Hugo Burge Foundation's Dr James Fox said: "I can’t tell you how excited I am about this piece. It won’t only be one of Scotland’s greatest artworks but actually about the people and landscape of Scotland. I think it’s an extraordinary, high-profile, big-name start for our prize and fitting too, given that graves are, in a way, little dents in the universe."
Over the years there has been a steady decline in major public art projects like Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North in Gateshead, Tyne & Wear (1998), which was commissioned by Gateshead Council as part of a larger regeneration programme.
Anish Kapoor’s ArcelorMittal Orbit in the Olympic Park is another public art example. It was a permanent lasting legacy of the Olympics in London in 2012.
Funding for such projects from the likes of local authorities and cultural institutions has all but disappeared.
Lucy Brown, CEO of the Hugo Burge Foundation, explained:
"As a result of the current climate, artists with ambitious ideas for permanent public artworks have been forced to seek unpredictable sources of private philanthropy, often outside the UK.
"The Hugo Burge Foundation aims to fill this growing gap, offering unparalleled funds to support capital costs of one-off permanent artworks untethered to large-scale construction projects, dispersing them across the country on publicly accessible land.
"The Foundation will work closely with artists, landowners, community groups and partner organisations. In some cases, it will act as a lead commissioner; in others, it may provide funding that unlocks additional support elsewhere. Artists will also receive practical and strategic support, including communications assistance and introductions to potential partners.
"It is a privilege to be able to see the work of the Foundation develop, beginning its journey supporting the national as well as the local and bringing inspiration and joy to so many.
"Dent in the Universe is a major step in creating something lasting and beautiful as well as heralding the work we do and the memory on which we build."
