In 1897, a filmmaker strapped a hand-cranked camera—and himself—to the front of a moving train. The result was cinema’s first Phantom Ride: a moving shot which merged two revolutionary technologies of the time—film and rail—to create a completely new way of seeing the world. Audiences were astonished by the dizzying sensation of speed and the unfamiliar perspective. Meanwhile, the expansion of the rail network was radically reshaping the surface of the earth.
Even when we're not aboard a train, our perception of the environment is always mediated—by architecture, by images, by technology. There is no innocent gaze.
This programme presents five early phantom rides alongside contemporary works by artists Inne Feenstra, Martina Laruffa, Pam Sikkink, and Jonathan Steiger. Together, they explore how technologies of movement and vision inscribe themselves onto the landscape.
After all, it is the gaze that turns land into landscape—and every gaze leaves its trace.
In this programme:
Gezicht tussen N 53 12.484, E 7 2.655 en N 53 16.052, E 7 2.310, Inne Feenstra, 2022
What goes up comes around, Martina Laruffa, 2023
WHEN WE STOP, Pam Sikkink, 2022
Camera with a view, Jonathan Steiger, 2024
Alongside five “Phantom rides” from the EYE collection.
This project is supported by the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts and the Mondriaan Fund.