The Shortest Day at the Van Abbemuseum

For this work the Dutch artist Jan Dibbets took a photograph of a view through a window in the Van Abbemuseum every 6 minutes from sunrise to sunset, leaving the camera in the same position and with the same settings. The differences between the photographs reflect the natural progress of daylight.

Originally this work was recorded on slides which were exhibited at intervals of six minutes. In this way, the element of time played a role both during the recording and during the presentation. Later, Dibbets decided to replace the slides by photographs which he showed on a panel simultaneously. This means that the differences between the images can be seen better and the viewer does not have to r...