ABSTRACT
This chapter presents how reading Richard Long's art in the light of Martin Heidegger's philosophy and vice versa in addition to reciprocally aiding the interpretation of their works sheds light on the relation between man and nature. Heidegger's philosophy and Long's art are different, but related ways of dealing with the human condition: dwelling as mortals on the earth. In Heidegger's idiom, Richard Long's art is an opening up of nature in the sense of moving the earth into the open. Long's aesthetic encounters with nature, his interventions in nature which amount to something in between making monuments and leaving nothing but footprints allow the rawness of nature shine through; experiencing nature in its raw materiality hence becomes possible through his works. Heidegger's philosophy contains interesting thoughts about the relationship between art and nature. There is an important and essential connection between dwelling and building, according to Heidegger.
