New York, Manhattan, SOHO. When I step into the gallery, I am immediately wrapped in silence. In the vast space, the light of brass intersects and shimmers. I sit on a bench and face the work. From the ceiling, the fluorescent lights emit a faint electronic hum.
Walter de Maria was an American artist who created many installation works. In Japan, the first thing that comes to mind is his piece at the Naoshima Island in Japan, where a sphere sits in a stairway space. Here, however, I want to introduce a work of his that was in New York.
The gallery sits in Manhattan’s SoHo district and the Dia Art Foundation runs it. It displays only Walter de Maria’s work, The Broken Kilometer.
Let me start with the conclusion. Simple as it sounds, it’s amazing. I felt overwhelmed.
I open the door on the ground floor of a five-story building in Manhattan and step inside. Before me stretches a vast sight: rows of brass rods, glowing and perfectly aligned from front to back. The space measures roughly 15 meters wide and 50 meters deep. When I enter, three young people already sit on a bench at the front, quietly observing the work. It’s magnificent—an overwhelming spectacle.
These brass rods are arranged with perfect precision. Below is the description written at the brochure.
500 highly polished, round, solid brass rods
5 parallel rows of 100 rods each
Each rod measures 2 meters in length (6.6 feet)
and 5 centimeters in diameter (2 inches)
The spaces between the rods increase by 5 millimeters
The first two rods of each row are placed 80 millimeters apart, the last two rods are placed 570 millimeters apart
522.6 square meters of floor space (5,625 square feet),
illuminated by stadium lights
Total weight of sculpture: 18 3/4tons
Total length of sculpture (if all of the elements were laid end to end): 1,000 meters (3,280.8 feet)
In short, the 500 brass rods each measure two meters in length. If placed end to end, they would stretch 500 x 2 meters = 1,000 meters—exactly one kilometer. That is why the work is titled The Broken Kilometer.
The young people on the bench leave, and silence fills the gallery. In the vast space, the golden brass rods shine and their light intersects. I sit down on the bench and face the work. From the ceiling, the fluorescent lights give off a faint electronic hum.
On the right side of the work, a table stands with a staff member sitting behind it. After the three young visitors leave, I walk over and ask her a question.
Are the rods fixed in place?
The woman shows me a kind of model. She explains that there are about four different methods used to fix the rods to the floor, depending on their position. This, she says, relates to the fact that the floor rises slightly toward the back. Interestingly, the pamphlet makes no mention of the slanting floor.
“I’m from Japan, and the Walter de Maria work on Naoshima is just incredible,” I say.
“Oh, this one,” the woman replies, pulling out what looks like a photo book and showing it to me. “I went there in 2023. It was wonderful.”
“I tried to visit Lightning Rod last year, but I couldn’t,” I tell her.
“Yes, it’s by lottery,” she says. “The spots fill up right away.”When I ask about the ban on photography, she explains that it comes from the artist’s wishes. The purpose is not to take pictures, but to experience the work itself.
I can understand that,” I reply. “If they allowed photos of the Walter de Maria piece on Naoshima, everyone would start taking pictures, and people wouldn’t be able to truly appreciate the work.
I continue, “Still, I feel that allowing photography could help spread awareness.”
The woman looks at me, nods, and after a brief silence, she says,
“Dia’s concept is not about bringing in large crowds.”
This place and the exhibition have been running since 1979—almost 50 years. Perhaps this fact is reflected in the woman’s final words.
New York has some amazing museums: the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Guggenheim Museum. But don’t forget to visit this place as well. You are sure to experience something unique.
Visited in 2025
Basic Information
■ Name : Water de Maria / The Broken Kilometer
■ Address : 393 W Broadway, New York, NY, USA
■ Homepage : https://www.diaart.org/ (Dia Art Foundation)
■ Others
・When I visited, the gallery hours were Wednesday through Sunday, from 12:00 to 15:00 and from 15:30 to 18:00.
・Admission is free. When I visited, a single female staff member was on duty.
