Desert X AlUla 2026 returns to northwest Saudi Arabia with a fourth edition that scatters contemporary art across within the valleys, canyons, and oases of AlUla. Presented by Arts AlUla in collaboration with Desert X, the exhibition runs from January 16th to February 28th, 2026 as part of the AlUla Arts Festival. It brings new site-responsive sculptural commissions into conversation with the scenic desert.

The curatorial theme, Space Without Measure, shapes an edition that attends closely to scale, distance, and perception across a vast landscape. Works are positioned across Wadi AlFann and the surrounding oasis zones, where shifts in light and wind are a part of the experience. Desert X AlUla 2026 approaches the site as an active participant, asking visitors to move slowly and read materials in relation to desert and sky.

Agnes Denes, The Living Pyramid, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

site-responsive artworks scatter across the desert

Sustainable production methods inform Desert X AlUla 2026 at every level. Rammed earth, carved stone, and locally sourced wood appear across multiple projects, produced in Saudi Arabia through collaborations with regional artisans and cultural centers.

Partnerships with the locally-based arts and design center Madrasat Addeera and the AlUla Music Hub extend this emphasis on local knowledge, while consultation with the AlUla Native Plant Nursery guides the integration of plantlife into the ‘oasis’ environment.

The exhibition is co-curated by Wejdan Reda and Zoé Whitley, with artistic direction led by Neville Wakefield and Raneem Farsi. Their approach favors works that respond to specific conditions of AlUla, from ancient water routes to cultivated palm groves.

Bahraini-Danish, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

eleven participating artists for 2026

Among the Saudi artists participating in Desert X AlUla 2026, Budapest-born artist Agnes Denes contributes The Living Pyramid, a planted structure situated within the oasis. Continuing a project developed across multiple geographies, the work emphasizes cycles of growth and regeneration through its changing surface. 

Sound plays a central role in several commissions. The collective practice Bahraini-Danish introduces Bloom, a kinetic sculpture animated by sunlight and shadow. Its rotating elements register the passage of time across the day, producing a shifting visual rhythm that aligns with the desert’s cycles. Participation remains gentle and open-ended, inviting viewers to linger rather than perform.

Basmah Felemban’s Murmur of Pebbles enlarges geological fragments into carved limestone forms. Installed along pathways shaped by ancient rivers, the work draws attention to sediment, erosion, and time embedded within stone. Originally commissioned for a previous edition, the installation returns with renewed emphasis on scale and spacing under the current curatorial framework.

Basmah Felemban, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

In a nearby valley, Héctor Zamora’s Tar HyPar introduces percussion-inspired forms that respond to collective movement. Visitors activate the installation through sound, producing a low, resonant energy that travels across open ground.

Ibrahim El-Salahi’s Haraza Tree responds to acacia species found across the region, translating their resilience into sculptural forms that gather individually while standing as a unified artwork.

Mohammad Alfaraj contributes What was the Question Again?, a living installation centered on a palm structure assembled from grafted trunks. Referencing the agricultural landscapes of Al Ahsa, the piece reflects long-standing relationships between cultivation, storytelling, and renewal.

Héctor Zamora, Tar HyPar, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

Sara Abdu presents A Kingdom Where No One Dies: Contours of Resonance, a sculptural installation formed through layered rammed earth walls. Poetry and geology intersect within its surfaces, drawing attention to construction techniques shared across cultures and eras. The work reads through touch and proximity, its mass tempered by subtle shifts in tone and texture.

Future Fables by Vibha Galhotra encloses fragments of demolished buildings within a steel framework. The structure shelters traces of recent change, transforming debris into a place for reflection and shared narratives.

Several works in Desert X AlUla 2026 engage directly with ecological systems. Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons shows Imole Red, an installation inspired by AlUla’s sunsets and Yoruba spiritual traditions. Color and planting combine within a garden-like structure that acknowledges water as a sustaining presence within the valley. The work carries a sense of continuity between land, ritual, and care.

Ibrahim El-Salahi, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

Lebanese artist and composer Tarek Atoui presents The Water Song, continuing his research into listening practices initiated during the AlUla Arts Festival 2025. Instruments emerge partially from the ground, encouraging visitors to attune to subtle vibrations carried through soil and air. The landscape becomes an acoustic field shaped by movement and attention.

Nearby, rare sculptural works by the late Mohammed AlSaleem appear for the first time, including The Thorn and AlShuruf Unit. Created during the 1980s, these geometric forms extend upward with a measured sense of aspiration, shaped by desert horizons and celestial reference points.

Mohammad AlFaraj, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

Sara Abdu, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

Vibha Galhotra, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

Tarek Atoui, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

works by Mohammed Al Saleem throughout the exhibition are on loan courtesy of Riyadh Art collection, The Royal Commission for Riyadh City

project info:

event: Desert X | @_desertx

location: AlUla, Saudi Arabia

on view: January 16th to February 28th, 2026

photography: © Lance Gerber | @lance.gerber

The post desert X 2026 opens with artworks that harmonize with alUla’s valleys and canyons appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Stretching across California’s Coachella Valley, the 2025 edition of Desert X transforms the desert into a living conversation between art, land, and time. Through eleven newly commissioned installations, artists from Asia, Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East engage with the desert’s vastness as both subject and collaborator. The artworks confront the weight of history embedded in the landscape while speculating on its future, addressing themes of Indigenous futurism, design activism, and the imprint of human intervention.

Some pieces take on solid architectural forms, asserting a presence in the shifting terrain, while others embrace the ephemeral, using wind, light, and movement to underscore the desert’s constant state of flux. In a region where wilderness and urban expansion collide, these works challenge perceptions of permanence, inviting visitors to reconsider the desert not as an empty expanse but as a layered site of memory, transformation, and resistance. The works will be on view across the Coachella Valley from March 8th — May 11th, 2025

Coachella Valley, California | image © Lance Gerber

monumental artworks draw from ancestral wisdom

From Sanford Biggers’ explorations of cultural symbology to Agnes Denes’ meditations on ecological stewardship, each installation for Desert X 2025 offers a distinct lens on the complexities of desert life in California. Ronald Rael and Cannupa Hanska Luger draw from Indigenous knowledge to propose alternative ways of engaging with land. Meanwhile, Raphael Hefti, Jose Dávila, and Sarah Meyohas examine the shifting boundaries between technology and nature.

At once speculative and deeply rooted, the works on view stretch across time — drawing from ancestral wisdom while interrogating the asymmetries of colonial power and the accelerating impact of emerging technologies. In its fifth iteration, Desert X continues to use the desert as a space of inquiry, where art reflects, reframes, and reimagines our relationship with the world we inhabit.

Kimsooja, To Breathe — Coachella Valley, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

To Breathe — Coachella Valley is an installation by artist Kimsooja that invites viewers to engage with the elemental qualities of the desert — the sensation of sand beneath their feet, the movement of air, and the ever-shifting play of light. Known for her use of bottaris — bundles wrapped in fabric that speak to themes of migration and memory in Korean culture — the artist describes this work as a ‘bottari of light.’ By enveloping the glass structure in a specially engineered optical film, she transforms the architecture into a luminous prism, shifting with the sun and surroundings. Installed in Desert Hot Springs, the piece echoes its sister installation in AlUla, Saudi Arabia.

Jose Dávila, The act of being together, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

Jose Dávila’s ‘The act of being together’ explores material density, gravity, and time through a series of unaltered marble blocks sourced from a quarry just across the U.S.–Mexico border. Inspired by Robert Smithson’s site/nonsite dialectics, the artist establishes a relationship between absence and presence, migration, and transformation.

As the stones traverse both physical and metaphorical borders, they evoke unseen histories and future possibilities, appearing as if splintered across time and space. Their casual arrangement suggests archaeological ruins in reverse — simultaneously remnants of the past and markers of an emerging future — inviting reflection on human transience within an expansive and shifting landscape.

Sarah Meyohas, Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

Sarah Meyohas’ completes ‘Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams’ as an immersive installation that merges analog and digital technologies to explore perception and light. Situated in the Palm Desert, the artist‘s work harnesses ‘caustics’ — light patterns formed by refraction and reflection — projecting sunlight onto a ribbon-like structure cascading across the landscape.

Inspired by ancient timekeeping and 20th-century land art, the installation features mirrored panels designed through computer algorithms, each inscribed with the poetic phrase, ‘truth arrives in slanted beams.’ As visitors adjust the mirrors, they reveal shifting projections, illusions, and patterns, evoking a mirage-like longing for water in the arid expanse.

Ronald Rael, Adobe Oasis, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

Kapwani Kiwanga’s Plotting Rest stands as a pavilion-like structure that both evokes and challenges the iconic design language of Palm Springs. Suggesting refuge while offering none, the sculpture features a canopy of interlocking triangular forms that form a delicate lattice overhead. This open roof lets sun, wind, and rain filter through, casting shifting geometric shadows on the earth below. Drawing from the traditional ‘flying geese’ quilting motif — historically linked to the covert codes of the Underground Railroad — the artist imbues the piece with layers of meaning. Located near the Palm Springs Visitor Center, Plotting Rest becomes a site for reflection and quiet resilience, evoking the hopes and hardships of those who’ve migrated in search of freedom across generations.

Kapwani Kiwanga, Plotting Rest, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

‘Adobe Oasis’ by Ronald Rael is a sculptural demonstration of the revival of ancestral building techniques through contemporary technology. Situated in Palm Springs, the installation reimagines the potential of adobe — an ancient, sustainable material — through an innovative 3D-printing process.

Drawing inspiration from Indigenous and earthen construction traditions, the artist’s corrugated mud structures echo the texture of palm trees, referencing the enduring oases of the Coachella Valley. Set against relics of western expansion and modern real estate, Adobe Oasis presents a compelling alternative to environmentally harmful architecture, emphasizing adobe’s affordability, energy efficiency, and resilience. 

Sanford Biggers, Unsui (Mirror), Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

Sanford Biggers’ ‘Unsui (Mirror)’ is a monumental sequin-covered sculpture at the James O. Jessie Desert Highland Unity Center in Palm Springs. Towering over thirty feet, the shimmering cloud forms draw from Buddhist concepts of unsui (‘clouds and water’ in Japanese), symbolizing movement, transformation, and interconnection.

Reflecting sunlight and shifting with the wind, the sculptures evoke both the ephemeral and the eternal, mirroring the interplay between natural forces and cultural narratives. Rooted in the artist’s broader practice of remixing historical symbols, the work also acknowledges the history of the surrounding Black community, which was formed after the displacement of residents from Section 14 in the 1960s. In this context, Unsui (Mirror) stands as both a meditation on freedom and a symbol of resilience.

Alison Saar, Soul Service Station, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

Alison Saar’s ‘Soul Service Station’ is a desert resting place that offers spiritual replenishment in the form of art, poetry, and communal engagement. Inspired by the gas stations of the American West, the artist’s station brings healing and renewal. At its heart stands a hand-carved female guardian, symbolizing strength and protection.

Inside, an assemblage of devotional objects and furnishings crafted from salvaged materials merge Saar’s transformative practice with community collaboration, including foil repoussé medallions created by Coachella Valley students. A repurposed gas pump plays poetry by Harryette Mullen, further enriching the experience. Rooted in Saar’s exploration of cultural memory, Black female identity, and spiritual traditions, Soul Service Station is a refuge for weary travelers, inviting them to pause, reflect, and recharge.

Raphael Hefti, Five Things You Can’t Wear on TV, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

Swiss artist Raphael Hefti’s ‘Five Things You Can’t Wear on TV’ is a site-specific installation in Palm Desert that explores perception and immateriality through industrial materials. Inspired by his Alpine upbringing and later encounters with the desert’s vast horizontality, Hefti employs a black woven polymer fiber — originally designed for fire hoses — coated with a reflective finish.

Suspended in tension between two distant points, the material forms an artificial horizon, oscillating in the wind like a vibrating guitar string. This kinetic movement distorts spatial perception, mirroring the ephemeral nature of desert mirages where hard lines blur and reform. The piece transforms environmental forces — wind, light, and atmospheric shifts — into an evolving visual phenomenon, inviting viewers to engage with the poetic interplay of distance, proximity, and perception.

Agnes Denes, The Living Pyramid, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

‘The Living Pyramid’ by Hungarian artist Agnes Denes is a monumental sculptural and environmental intervention at Sunnylands Center & Gardens, created for Desert X 2025. Integrating Denes’ long-standing exploration of pyramidal forms with her commitment to public landworks, the piece reflects both mathematical precision and organic transformation.

Planted with native vegetation, its structure evolves over six months as plants sprout, bloom, seed, and decay, embodying the dynamic interplay between nature and civilization. Echoing Sunnylands’ role as a diplomatic hub, the pyramid serves as a living metaphor for societal growth and imperfection. Activated through educational programs, it creates environmental awareness and collective stewardship, transforming beyond form into a social construct of care and engagement.

Cannupa Hanska Luger, G.H.O.S.T. Ride, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

‘G.H.O.S.T. Ride’ by Cannupa Hanska Luger is a mobile, nomadic installation that expands his Future Ancestral Technologies (FAT) series, envisioning sustainable, land-based futures through speculative fiction. Reimagining his Repurposed Archaic Technology vehicle (RAT Rod), the artist transforms it into a reflective, camouflaged structure traversing the Coachella Valley, merging with the landscape while serving as both a mirror and an extension of the environment.

Constructed from industrial detritus, ceramics, and a tipi, the vehicle integrates speculative water and light-gathering systems, imagining an adaptive, resilient future. Visitors may encounter its time-traveling occupants — a family from an undefined future — prompting reflections on survival, Indigenous knowledge, and the relationship between humanity and the land. Rooted in the ethos of Future Ancestral Technologies, G.H.O.S.T. Ride challenges colonial narratives of extraction, urging us to learn from the desert’s deep-time wisdom and reconsider coexistence beyond human-centered infrastructure.

Muhannad Shono, What Remains, Desert X 2025 | image © Lance Gerber

Muhannad Shono’s ‘What Remains’ is a site-specific installation for Desert X that explores the fluid nature of identity and land. Using long strips of fabric infused with native sand, the artist harnesses the desert wind as an active force, allowing the material to shift and tangle like dunes in motion. The work challenges notions of permanence, as the wind disrupts and reshapes the fabric, creating a landscape in constant flux. Suspended between gravity and movement, What Remains becomes a living relic — an ephemeral memory of place, displacement, and transformation.

project info:

event: Desert X | @_desertx

location: Coachella Valley, California

artists: Sanford Biggers, Jose Dávila, Agnes Denes, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Raphael Hefti, Sarah Meyohas, Ronald Rael, Alison Saar, Muhannad Shono

on view: March 8th — May 11th, 2025

photography: © Lance Gerber | @lance.gerber

The post desert X 2025 opens with artworks that speak to california’s vast coachella valley appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Art Basel 2024 – which takes place at Messe Basel from June 13th to 16th, 2024 – is set to bring over 285 international galleries and artists to present artworks and exhibitions spanning from painting and sculpture to photography and digital works, from early-twentieth-century Modern pioneers to emerging contemporary practitioners. Maike Cruse, Director of Art Basel in Basel, says that there will be 22 galleries joining Art Basel 2024 for the first time, with five of them directly participating in the main sector of the show. Our designboom guide to Art Basel 2024 lists the exhibitions and events not to miss during its course.

For the first time, Stefanie Hessler Director of Swiss Institute (SI) in New York, reconceptualizes the Parcours section, which will unfold along Clarastrasse up to the Middle Bridge. The city’s Messeplatz, curated for the third time by Samuel Leuenberger, will feature a site-specific presentation by conceptual artist Agnes Denes. Unlimited, home to large-scale projects, will be curated for the fourth time by Giovanni Carmine, Director of Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, and host Unlimited Night, which allows visitors to stay beyond opening hours for more performances.

Art Basel’s talks program, Conversations, is celebrating its 20th anniversary edition during Art Basel 2024, curated for the first time by Berlin-based art critic Kimberly Bradley. Outside the Art Basel 2024 fair, visitors to the city of Basel can roam around and swing by a program of events and special projects throughout the fair week, with the city’s museums and foundations hosting a range of exhibitions coinciding with the Art Basel fair. Read through our guide to Art Basel 2024 below to not miss out on the programs, events, exhibitions and more taking place between June 13th and 16th, 2024.

image courtesy of Art Basel

UNLIMITED

For the fourth time, Giovanni Carmine, Director of Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, is curating Art Basel’s sector for large-scale projects, Unlimited. 70 Monumental installations, colossal sculptures, wall paintings, comprehensive photo series, and expansive video projections are set to be exhibited during Art Basel 2024. They guide visitors through a six-meter-high sculpture composed of deformed guardrails by Bettina Pousttchi, presented by Buchmann Galerie, and a site-specific installation by Swedish artist Anna Uddenberg, titled Premium Economy (2023-2024), presented by Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler and Meredith Rosen Gallery.

Unlimited will also welcome works by Yayoi Kusama and Ugo Rondinone’s luminous light (2023) alongside Untitled (2022), an installation by American artist Henry Taylor, presented by Hauser & Wirth; Senza titolo (vele) (1993) by Greek Italian artist Jannis Kounellis’ installation, presented by Kewenig; Untitled (FDR NY) #5-22 (1984) by American artist Keith Haring, presented by Gladstone Gallery and Martos Gallery; a new video installation titled DOKU The Flow (2024) by Chinese artist Lu Yang, presented by Société; and a reenactment of American artist Faith Ringgold’s first multimedia performance, titled The Wake and Resurrection of the Bicentennial Negro (1976), presented by Goodman Gallery in collaboration with ACA Galleries.

Other works are displayed, such as Chess (2012), a seminal installation by American artist Lutz Bacher, presented by Galerie Buchholz; ARCHITEKTURTRAUM (2001) by Swiss artist Miriam Cahn, presented by Meyer Riegger and Galerie Jocelyn Wolff; and a complete set of Robert Frank’s The Americans (1954-1957) presented by Pace Gallery and Thomas Zander, to name a few. Art Basel’s Unlimited Night returns on June 13th too, and for the first time, visitors to Unlimited can vote for their favorite artwork for the whole duration of Art Basel. The Unlimited People’s Pick will then be announced towards the end of the show week. 

Ugo Rondinone, Luminous Light, 2023 to appear in Unlimited at Art Basel 2024, Painted Bronze, 232 Cm × 651 Cm × 204 Cm | image courtesy of Ugo Rondinone

PARCOURS

Stefanie Hessler, Director of Swiss Institute (SI) in New York, is curating Parcours for the first time, the Art Basel’s public art sector, which will unfold along Clarastrasse up to the Middle Bridge, connecting the fairgrounds with the Rhine. Parcours is expected to guide the visitors around empty stores and operational shops, a hotel, a restaurant, a brewery, and other everyday spaces on Basel’s Clarastrasse. The projects showcased, many of them site-specific and newly produced, aim to explore the transformation and circulation in trade, globalization, and ecology. Stefanie Hessler succeeds Samuel Leuenberger in curating Parcours, who expanded the sector over the past eight years.

In Parcours, London-based artist Alvaro Barrington builds the Tropical Zone store, an architectural structure lined with paintings that houses produce on sale, presented by Sadie Coles HQ, Thaddaeus Ropac, and Massimodecarlo. Swedish artist Lap-See Lam introduces her installation of traditional Chinese shadow play and digital animation, presented by Galerie Nordenhake. A portable garden is what Austrian artist Lois Weinberger is exhibiting, presented by Galerie Krinzinger, with the hopes of transposing nature into an urban context to attract insects and birds.

London-based artist Mandy El-Sayegh is holding a performance that questions the spread of information and goods within a partially vacant shopping mall, presented by Thaddaeus Ropac and Lehmann Maupin, while a series of pirate flags by Rirkrit Tiravanija lines the Middle Bridge crossing the Rhine, presented by neugerriemschneider. Peruvian artist Ximena Garrido-Lecca, presented by Galerie Gisela Capitain, installs her ‘Conversion systems’ inside a brewery, a juxtaposition of ancestral techniques and artisanal materials with industrial applications in petrol extraction. The Parcours Night will be hosted on June 12th, from 8 to 11pm, for a night of live performances and other acts along Clarastrasse and at the Merian, situated right at the Middle Bridge along the Rhine in Kleinbasel. 

Alvaro Barrington Installation view, Parcours, Art Basel, Basel, 13 – 16 June 2024 © Alvaro Barrington. Courtesy the Artist; Sadie Coles HQ, London; Thaddaeus Ropac gallery; and MASSIMODECARLO. Photo: Andrea Rossetti

THE MESSEPLATZ

In the city’s Messeplatz, conceptual artist Agnes Denes guides the viewers into her site-specific presentation under the curation of Samuel Leuenberger, founder of the non-profit exhibition spaces SALTS in Birsfelden and Bennwil. It is Samuel Leuenberger’s third time curating the Messeplatz, and Agnes Denes’ presence ushers in the piece Honouring Wheatfield – A Confrontation (2024), referring to her land artwork from the 1980s, which will remain on the Messeplatz throughout the summer until its harvest. Agnes Denes is considered a pioneer of environmental, ecological, and land art whose artistic practice harks to the engagement with socio-political ideas.

Agnes Denes, Wheatfield—A Confrontation, New York, 1982 | image courtesy of Agnes Denes, via Instagram

CONVERSATIONS

Celebrating its 20th anniversary edition, Art Basel’s flagship talks program, Conversations, returns, curated for the first time by Berlin-based art critic Kimberly Bradley. More than 25 thought leaders are expected to join Conversations, with 11 focused panels related to the issue of building and shaping contemporary culture’s future. The discussions will touch on the art trade’s challenges and opportunities in a super election year, the potentials of increased interdisciplinarity in museums, how artists relate to politics in a time of global crisis, and the ways digital technologies are recasting art’s social and economic ecosystems. 

Hans Ulrich Obrist will guide viewers into worldbuilding and the idea of utopia with digital artists Rebecca Allen and Danielle Braithwaite Shirley, and architect Carlo Ratti, who is curating the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale (read more about it here). Before her Hyundai Commission at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, artist Mire Lee will dive into her art practice, which connects to the art and history of moving sculptures. Then, Ben Davis from Artnet News will sit down with artist Cecile B. Evans to converse about how technology is changing art communities and its value.

Legal experts Katalin Andreides and Till Vere-Hodge, along with UBS’s Paul Donovan will discuss how political and legal changes in an election year could affect the art market in a session led by Georgina Adam. The talks will wrap up with a discussion between Basel-based artist Sophie Jung, British artist Monster Chetwynd, and curator/critic Francesco Bonami about the role of humor and satire in modern art. During the final weekend, a selection of videos from the most notable discussions over the past two decades will be shown in the Conversations auditorium, and visitors are invited to attend.

Kimberly Bradley, Conversations Curator | image courtesy of Art Basel

MAISON RUINART

On the occasion of Art Basel, Maison Ruinart presents its Carte Blanche 2024 program, a collective of artists united by a strong connection to nature. Part of Conversations With Nature will be exhibited at the Collectors Lounge at Art Basel in Basel from June 13 to 16, featuring works by Thjis Biersteker and Marcus Coates. This year, the main theme is sustainability, with panels composed of influential personalities and committed artists. One of the objectives is to understand how art can contribute to promoting a more environmentally conscious and respectful society. 

A dedicated space, the Collectors Lounge, showcases two major works, offering an exclusive meeting place. Here, the spotlight is on the works of Marcus Coates and Thijs Biersteker, two artists part of Maison Ruinart’s Carte Blanche 2024 program, both recognized for their commitment and reflection on contemporary issues.

The participating artists, representing five continents, include Andrea Bowers from Los Angeles, Marcus Coates and Thijs Biersteker from Europe, Pascale Marthine Tayou from Belgium and Cameroon, Henrique Oliveira from London and São Paulo, and Tomoko Sauvage who works between Paris and Tokyo. Their works will spark global conversations from New York to Tokyo, highlighting diverse perspectives on environmental issues.

Conversations with nature, Ruinart vineyard in Sillery, Champagne, France, 2023 | image courtesy Blast Production/Ruinart

we are ona at Art Basel 2024

Creative culinary studio WE ARE ONA and Art Basel 2024 have also joined forces for a series of culinary pop-up pairing fine dining, art and design. The first chapter begins with designer Pierre Marie and chef Sayaka Sawaguchi from June 9th to 16th in Filter4, a former municipal water tank in Basel. Their collaboration will also be presented during Art Basel’s global shows in Basel, Paris, Miami Beach and Hong Kong. 

WE ARE ONA pop-up pairing fine dining, art and design | image courtesy of WE ARE ONA

BMW teams up with Es Devlin

During Art Basel 2024, BMW will bring over its iX5 Hydrogen car, launched in February 2023, all dressed up in a new skin through its collaboration with British artist and set designer Es Devlin. The show and installation car is presented alongside a dance-theater piece born from a creative union with the renowned dancer, Sharon Eyal. More information about the project is coming soon.

LISTE ART FAIR BASEL 2024

Liste Art Fair Basel, which runs from June 10th to 26th, is returning too with all of its guides and formats: Liste Art Fair Basel, Liste Showtime Online and Liste Expedition Online. This year, 91 galleries from 35 countries will welcome visitors in Hall 1.1 at Messe Basel alongside 65 solo, 16 group presentations, and five joint booths. Elise Lammer is curating an extensive performance programme titled Mythic Beings, in homage to Adrian Piper’s 1973 work. A series of performances is expected to take place from Wren Cellier, Astrit Ismaili, Florence Peake, and Luana Vitra, from soundscapes and seminars to drawings and paintings.

Liste Showtime Online, which runs from June 10th to 23rd, is the digital edition of the physical Liste Art Fair Basel, tailored to the emerging contemporary artists presented by international galleries. In this space, visitors can go through over 80 new and upcoming artists represented by participating galleries from more than 35 countries. Along with this is the Liste Expedition Online, a research forum with a growing index of artists who represent new positions in contemporary art. The artists are selected by galleries and project spaces participating in Liste Art Fair Basel and Liste Showtime Online.

In a statement, the Liste Art Fair Basel’s team says that it underwent structural and personnel changes in the management following the news of its co-directorship. In October 2023, Reto Nussbaum took over as the commercial director, and the artistic direction for the 2024 fair is set to be overseen on an interim basis by Peter Bläuer, the co-founder and former long-time director of Liste.

Florence Peake, FATCUAL ACTUAL Ensemble, installation view at Southwark Park Galleries, London, 2023 | image courtesy of Liste Art Fair Basel

GUIDE TO ART IN BASEL OUTSIDE THE FAIR

ArtMeta’s The Digital Art Mile on Rebgasse

A new digital art fair is coming to Basel with the launch of ArtMeta’s The Digital Art Mile, a boutique fair that aims to make digital art accessible. From June 10th to 16th, ArtMeta’s The Digital Art Mile runs through various exhibition venues along Rebgasse, in close proximity to Art Basel, where renowned international galleries and NFT platforms will showcase contemporary and historical digital art. ArtMeta and The Tezos Foundation are presenting two leading platforms across its ecosystem.

The Swiss platform Objkt will host the exhibition ‘Matter and Data’, and with Analivia Cordeiro, it will introduce an interactive installation that can allow visitors to transform their movement patterns into generative NFTs on the Tezos blockchain. Then, generative art platform fx(hash) will exhibit a curation of code-based artworks showcasing cultural and technological ties between digital and physical formats in cooperation with OFFICE IMPART. Visitors may see these live in Space 25 at Rebgasse 25, Basel; Space 31 at ​​Rebgasse 23, 4th floor Basel; and Kult.Kino Camera at Rebgasse 1, Basel.

ArtMeta’s The Digital Art Mile in Space 25 at Rebgasse 25, Basel | image courtesy of ArtMeta

BRONX BODEGA Basel at the novartis campus

BRONX BODEGA Basel is hosting a pop-up event from June 10th to June 16th, 2024, in collaboration with Ghetto Gastro (USA). Announced by Villa Nomad and located at the Novartis Campus in Basel, The BRONX BODEGA Basel guides attendees to dine, relax, connect, and party everyday from 11:30 AM to 2:00 AM.  Highlights feature curated experiences with contemporary art, large-scale textile installations and design elements by multidisciplinary artist Gab Bois, exclusive culinary creations by Ghetto Gastro (USA) alongside Swiss chefs Elif Oskan and Markus Stöckle, and nightly after-parties that continue the celebration. The event also includes art projections and NFT artworks by artists Sasha Stiles and Johannes Gees displayed on the Herzog & de Meuron building facade.

BRONX BODEGA BASEL external location | image © PM360 GmbH

Exhibitions inside Kunstmuseum Basel

At Kunstmuseum Basel, visitors to Art Basel 2024 can roam around the glowing installation of Dan Flavin: Dedications in Lights and When We See Us, a century of Black Figuration in painting by artists from the African continent and its diaspora, a look into the experiences of the quotidian in their painting over the last 100 years. Visitors can also pop by the other exhibitions inside, namely Made in Japan: Color Woodblock Prints by Hiroshige, Kunisada and Hokusai and Ingenious Women: Women Artists and their Companions. 

Dan Flavin, untitled (in memory of Urs Graf), 1975, Kunstmuseum Basel, Gift by Dia Art Foundation, New York © Stephen Flavin / 2024, ProLitteris, Zurich | read more here

Vitra Schaudepot and VITRA design museum

Vitra doubles down with back-to-back exhibitions. Argentine visual artist and designer Andrés Reisinger directs Science Fiction Design: From Space Age to Metaverse at the Vitra Schaudepot, with over 100 objects inspired by science fiction from the museum’s collection are staged in a futuristic display. Inside the VITRA design museum, the exhibition ‘Transform! Designing the Future of Energy’ guides viewers into the ever-evolving landscape of green energy, from sleek solar houses to wind power stations that dance with the breeze. 

Fantasy Landscape at the exhibition Visiona 2, Cologne, Germany, 1970 | image © Verner Panton Design | read more here

Toyin Ojih Odutola inside Kunsthalle Basel

At the Kunsthalle Basel, Toyin Ojih Odutola’s Ilé Oriaku art show of her tableaux vivants using charcoal, pastel, and pencil coincide with the events taking place outside of Art Basel 2024 fair. It is shown alongside two other exhibitions: Ghislaine Leung’s Commitments and her new series of score based works, and Nolan Oswald Dennis’ a recurse 4 [3] worlds comprising a site-specific, monumental diagrammatic artwork spread across the back wall of the museum. Both of these exhibitions run until August 11th, while Toyin Ojih Odutola’s show is up until September 1st.

Toyin Ojih Odutola, Back to the Body, 2023 | image courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery

Fondation Beyeler in Beyeler Museum at Baselstrasse

At Fondation Beyeler in Beyeler Museum AG, Baselstrasse 77, the entire museum and its surrounding park are transformed into the site of an experimental exhibition of contemporary art for the first time in the Fondation Beyeler’s more than 25-year history. The exhibition was conceived as a living organism that changes and transforms, and in particular, Tino Sehgal has been invited to turn the display features for the overall presentation, extending to works from the in-house collection.

Works of over 30 participants from different backgrounds and practices are showcased in the show developed by Sam Keller, Mouna Mekouar, Isabela Mora, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Precious Okoyomon, Philippe Parreno and Tino Sehgal. Julian Charrière’s Calls for Action is exhibited too, which see the transformation of Basel’s historical department store Globus into a public art work with land conservation

Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, 2024 | Philippe Parreno, Membrane, 2023, cybernetic structure with sensorimotor capabilities and generative language processing; courtesy of the artist © Philippe Parreno; Fujiko Nakaya, Untitled, 2024, Potable water, 600 Meefog nozzles, High pressure pump motor system, Courtesy of the artist, © Fujiko Nakaya | photo by Mark Niedermann

Julian Charrière, Western Andean Cloud Forest, Ecuador, 2024 © the artist; Vg-Bild Kunst, Bonn, Germany / 2024, Prolitteris, Zurich

The post art basel 2024: designboom’s guide to the swiss art event appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Saudi Arabia’s Royal Commission for AlUla has revealed five initial permanent installations that will be completed by 2024 for AlUla’s ‘Wadi AlFann’ —or ‘Valley of the Arts’. Spanning approximately 65 sq km across its untamed landscape, the spectacular desert valley will host large-scale site-specific artworks by American artists James Turrell, Agnes Denes, and Michael Heizer, as well as Saudi names Ahmed Mater and Manal AlDowayan. These five outstanding pieces will mark the start of a continued program of commissions, with more artists and activities to be announced.

Juxtaposed with the exceptional geography steeped in thousands of years of natural, historical, and cultural heritage, the contemporary artworks will create a dialogue with nature, honoring the human creativity that links different cultures and communities across the world.

renders of Ashab Al-Lal by Ahmed Mater at Wadi AlFann. Visualization by Atelier Monolit. ©ATHR Gallery

Ashab Al-Lal by Ahmed Mater coexists in harmony with nature

Wadi AlFann’s epic scale commissions by pioneer Land Art artists James Turrell (see more here), Agnes Denes (more here), Michael Heizer, Ahmed Mater (here), and Manal AlDowayan (here) will be materialized in harmony with the Royal Commission for AlUla’s commitment to the natural heritage and biodiversity of this millennia-old location.

For AlUla’s Wadi AlFann, Ahmed Mater, one of Saudi Arabia’s most influential contemporary artists, introduces his colossal ‘Ashab Al-Lal’, which will explore the mythic space through subterranean elements and mirrors. The physician-turned-artist challenges the idea of the landmark as a symbol of status and authority, viewing it instead as a place for the transmission of knowledge. Creating a spiritual, transcendental experience for the viewer, Mater has drawn from great scientific and philosophical thinkers of the Islamic Golden Age.

Set against the breathtaking sandstone cliffs and canyons of the vast terrain, the pieces celebrate the landscape of AlUla and respect the archaeological relics and colossal history. Drawing from its scenic topography, undulating panoramas, and distinctive geological structures, the schemes present an oasis of narratives inviting local communities, art lovers, adventurers, and globetrotters to explore and discover. The site’s pavilions, walkways, and belvederes will use locally sourced materials and be positioned to facilitate the free movement of camel herds and other native species. 

Five era-defining artworks across the valley

Known for his site-specific oeuvres, utilizing land and light as the main mediums, James Turrell will create a sensorial experience of light, color, and perception, generating a sequence of spaces within the canyon floor. Wandering through these stunning passages, the viewers will experience the nature of light and seeing, as well as elements of sky and terrain. For AlUla’s Wadi AlFann,  Agnes Denes will continue her ongoing series of monumental pyramids. Her new oeuvre will awaken the silent canyons they sit within, depicting the past, present, and future of humankind. This artwork examines civilization, progress, and achievement, proposing a breathtaking environment.

‘Wadi AlFann is unprecedented in its ambition, a world-leading platform enabling remarkable artists to create the most significant works of their lifetimes. It will set a new global example for experiencing art in dialogue with nature, celebrating the human creativity that unites communities across the world and inspiring current and future generations of artists. A display of such epic scale, set in a terrain as monumental as the AlUla desert, has the potential to shape the course of art history in real time,’ mentioned Iwona Blazwick, Chair of Royal Commission for AlUla’s Public Art Expert Panel.

Known for his large outdoor earthwork sculptures that use rock, concrete, and steel as a medium, Michael Heizer

introduces new incised engravings in the sandstone rock. Through tunnels and stairs, the American artist seeks a profound connection with the topography while accentuating the intricate beauty of the Quweira rock. Viewable from a far distance, most of these large-size works will change in appearance as viewers move around the area. Saudi artist Manal AlDowayan’s oeuvre brings themes of invisibility, collective memory, and the status and representation of women to the fore. Dubbed ‘The Oasis of Stories’, her labyrinthine installation draws from the mud walls of AlUla’s Old Town, inviting viewers to meander through the maze-like passages and get lost in an architectonic sculpture that imitates the ancient spaces of Arabic settlements. 

‘Wadi AlFann will rekindle the creativity of AlUla and deliver new transformative experiences for locals and visitors alike. As custodians of this land, a crossroad between East and West marked by 200,000 years of natural, human and cultural history, we must continue to harness the unique legacy of AlUla to build its future. It is an honour to be working with such esteemed and celebrated artists to aide our ambitions to further establish AlUla as a world-leading centre for art and culture. This visionary destination will build a vibrant and prosperous local cultural economy, forging pathways for the people of AlUla to unlock creative potential and be architects of the region’s future,’ said Nora Aldabal, Executive Director of Arts and Creative Industries, Royal Commission for
AlUla.

Wadi AlFann is one of the various new creative landmarks planned for AlUla as part of its Journey Through Time masterplan, along with the Perspectives Galleries, the Arts District, and the Water Pavilions. The Journey Through Time masterplan, unveiled by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, will see 15 new destinations for culture, heritage, and creativity open by 2035.

This is not the first time the deer of AlUla has seen artistic interventions. For the past years, the Desert X AlUla exhibition has been taking place there. Its first edition (read more on designboom here) welcomed 9,000 visitors, while the second one (read more on designboom here) grew to 24,000 visitors.

sketches for The Oasis of Stories by Manal AlDowayan, for Wadi AlFann

project info:

name: Wadi AlFann

artists: Manal AlDowayan, Agnes Denes, Michael Heizer, Ahmed Mater and James Turrell

location: AlUla desert, Saudi Arabia 

The post colossal installations at AlUla’s arts valley: from ahmed mater to james turrell + agnes denes appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Saudi Arabia’s Royal Commission for AlUla has announced the assignment of Saudi and international artists for AlUla’s Wadi AlFann. Meaning ‘Valley of the Arts’ the ambitious permanent sculpture park planned for the AlUla desert will see pioneer Land Art  American artists James Turrell, Agnes Denes and Michael Heizer, as well as established Saudi names Ahmed Mater and Manal AlDowayan present their pieces in 2024 along the 65-square-kilometer space. 

To curate the project, Saudi officials have enlisted Iwona Blazwick, former director of London’s Whitechapel Art Gallery. 

rendering of Ahmed Mater’s work

SAUDI ARABIA WANTS TO BE A LEADING GLOBAL DESTINATION FOR THE ARTS

‘Wadi AlFann is unprecedented in its ambition,’ Iwona Blazwick said in a released statement. ‘It will set a new global example for experiencing art in dialogue with nature, celebrating the human creativity that unites communities across the world and inspiring current and future generations of artists. A display of such epic scale, set in a terrain as monumental as the AlUla desert, has the potential to shape the course of art history in real time.’

AlUla’s Wadi AlFann will offer a profound opportunity to experience art on a monumental scale in dialogue with nature while it continues with Saudi Arabia’s vision of making the region a leading global destination for the arts. Land Art is an artistic style that aims to draw attention to the environment and the importance of preserving it. First seen in the USA in the late 1960s, Land Art seeks not to hold artworks in museums and closed galleries, but instead display them in open museums and galleries located in the heart of nature.

rendering of Manal AlDowayan’s work

For AlUla’s Wadi AlFann, James Turrell plans to create more than one piece, including a tunnel and a Skyspace. Known for his large-scale and site-specific artwork that uses land as the medium, Michael Heizer, will create lineal engravings on the sandstone rock, creating a direct relationship with the geology of the area while highlighting the details of the Quweira sandstone. Last but not least, 90-year-old Agnes Denes will carve a series of pyramids into the rocks which will explore civilization, advancement and achievement.

Ahmed Mater, one of Saudi Arabia’s most influential contemporary artists, is planning to create a colossal immersive experience with subterranean elements and mirrors. As for Manal al-Dowayan, she will be presenting Oasis of Stories, a piece that will pay tribute to the mud-brick houses found around AlUla’s Old Town.

render of Ahmed Mater’s work

This is not the first time the deer of AlUla has seen artistic interventions. For the past years, the Desert X AlUla exhibition has been taking place there. Its first edition (read more on designboom here) welcomed 9,000 visitors, while the second one (read more on designboom here) grew to 24,000 visitors.

project info:

name: Wadi AlFann

location: AlUla desert, Saudi Arabia 

The post james turrell, agnes denes + michael heizer to exhibit art installations at AlUla’s arts valley appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

many of the early land artists were especially drawn to the vast emptiness of the american west, removed from the urban centers of the commercial art world. it was here that christo and jeanne-claude swept ‘running fence’ across the properties of 59 ranchers in northern california; that robert smithson coiled the earthwork ‘spiral jetty’ across utah’s great salt lake; and where james turrell is completing his monumental roden crater project in the desert of northern arizona.

gianfranco gorgoni, ugo rondinone’s seven magic mountains, near jean dry lake, nevada, 2016 | 2016, chromogenic print | photograph from the collection of the nevada museum of art, the altered landscape, carol franc buck collection, with additional support from the estate of nancy l. peppin;
photograph © estate of gianfranco gorgoni; artwork co- produced and presented by the nevada museum of art and art production fund; artwork © ugo rondinone

in a state whose terrain inspired numerous historic and contemporary land art interventions, the nevada museum of art will expand its signature ‘art + environment’ conference from a weekend event into a season of virtual and in-person components. with the support of the museum’s center for art + environment, land art: past, present, futures will be presented from september 23 – november 19, 2021, offering new opportunities to reflect on the interaction between the natural world and the built environment. the nevada museum’s center for art + environment supports the practice, study, and awareness of creative interactions between people and their environment. it is home to a research library with archive collections from over 1,000 artists and organizations, and has commissioned works including ugo rondinone’s las vegas public art installation, seven magic mountains in 2016; and trevor paglen’s non-functional satellite sculpture, orbital reflector in 2018.

gianfranco gorgoni, nancy holt’s sun tunnels, great basin desert, utah, 1973–1976 | 2016, chromogenic print | photograph from the collection of the nevada museum of art, the altered landscape, carol franc buck collection, with additional support from the estate of nancy l. peppin;
photograph © estate of gianfranco gorgoni; artwork from the collection of dia art foundation; artwork © holt/smithson foundation and dia art foundation/ VAGA at artists rights society (ARS), NY

framing the ‘art + environment’ season are two major acquisitions by the museum. the first is a lifetime collection of land art contact sheets and full set of 50 large-scale prints by photographer gianfranco gorgoni — whose images brought worldwide attention in the 1960s and 70s to the work of michael heizer, walter de maria, and robert smithson, to name a few. the museum also acquired the archive of judy chicago’s ephemeral, outdoor atmospheres projects, also inaugurated in the late 1960s, which were initiated in an effort to ‘soften’ the heroic male posture of land art.

drawing on these sources and many others, land art: past, present, futures seeks to consider issues surrounding the histories of these landscapes, indigenous people’s relationships to the land, and gender attitudes and environmentalism. informing the presentations will be the history of the museum’s recent projects with artists ugo rondinone, maya lin, trevor paglen, and lita albuquerque, as well as recent acquisitions of artworks and archival material from andrea zittel’s high desert test sites group, cannupa hanska luger, cauleen smith, postcommodity, nancy holt, agnes denes, reko rennie, and cai guo-qiang.

gianfranco gorgoni, christo and jeanne-claude’s running fence, sonoma and marin counties, california, 1972–76 | 1976, chromogenic print | photograph from the collection of the nevada museum of art, the altered landscape, carol franc buck collection, with additional support from the estate of nancy l. peppin;
photograph © estate of gianfranco gorgoni; artwork © christo

exhibitions on view throughout the season and into 2022 include: gianfranco gorgoni: land art photographs; land art: expanding the atlas; judy chicago: dry ice, smoke, and fireworks archive; and disturbances in the field: art in the high desert from andrea zittel’s A-Z west to high desert test sites. read more about each in more detail below —

gianfranco gorgoni, robert smithson’s spiral jetty, rozel point, great salt lake, utah, 1970 | 2013 chromogenic print | photograph from the collection of the nevada museum of art, the altered landscape, carol franc buck collection, with additional support from the estate of nancy l. peppin;
photograph © estate of gianfranco gorgoni; artwork from the collection of dia art foundation; artwork © holt/smithson foundation and dia art foundation / VAGA at artists rights society (ARS), NY

on view from june 26, 2021 – january 2, 2022, gianfranco gorgoni: land art photographs features over 50 large-format photographs, including iconic images of many first-generation earthworks in the american west. after meeting new york gallery owner leo castelli in 1969, gorgoni was invited to travel to the desert and photograph earthworks by christo and jeanne-claude, walter de maria, michael heizer, nancy holt, richard serra, robert smithson, and fifty years later, ugo rondinone. gorgoni was the first photographer to collaborate on the ground with many of these artists, and his images often serve as the definitive photographic record of their projects.

postcommodity, repellent fence valla repelente, US/mexico border, douglas, arizona—agua prieta, sonora, mexico
installation view, 2015 | archival digital ink jet print | 32 x 48 inches
collection of the nevada museum of art, the altered landscape, carol franc buck collection © postcommodity
photo by michael lundgren, courtesy of postcommodity and bockley gallery

gorgoni famously shot the work of artist robert smithson, including spiral jetty, a 1970 earthwork located in utah. the holt/smithson foundation — which works to produce exhibitions, publications, programs, and research in continuation of the creative spirit of artists nancy holt and robert smithson — also recently announced public weekend openings from july to october for smithson’s 1971 earthwork, broken circle/spiral hill. located on private land near the city of emmen in the netherlands, broken circle/spiral hill is smithson’s only earthwork outside of the united states. smithson donated the artwork to the people of the netherlands, however the specifics of how the work should be cared for and who should take responsibility for the land on which it sits is unknown. in 2021, the wish is to secure the future of the artwork and to find support to bring the land into public ownership.

video by art21

also from june 26, 2021 – january 2, 2022 at the nevada museum of art is land art: expanding the atlas, an exhibition drawn primarily from the museum’s permanent art and archive collections. the show combines work by both prominent and lesser-known artists, whose works interrogate the definition of land art and question the established canon. while much of the world remains enchanted by the monumental land-based desert works that emerged in the american west in the late 1960s and 70s, there is equal interest in creating critique and engaging in environmental and social dialogue. artists featured include justin favela, cauleen smith, postcommodity, and judy chicago.

justin favela, family fiesta: double negative, 2015 | documentation of performance inside of michael heizer’s double negative
courtesy of the artist © justin favela / photo by mikayla whitmore

cauleen smith, remote viewing, 2009 (detail), digital video
collection of the nevada museum of art, purchased with funds from deaccessioning

finally, from july 3, 2021 – february 6, 2022, the exhibition disturbances in the field: art in the high desert from andrea zittel’s A-Z west to high desert test sites, opens at the nevada museum of art. founded in 2002 by artist andrea zittel, high desert test sites (HDTS) is a nonprofit arts organization based in joshua tree, california dedicated to the belief that engagement with its desert community can offer new insights and perspectives. HDTS is known for its biennial events in diverse locations, performances, workshops, film screenings, publications, residencies, and excursions — as well as two community-based programs known as kip’s desert book club and high desert test kitchen. the exhibition features highlights from the HDTS archives.

judy chicago, desert atmosphere, palm desert, CA, 1969/2020
30 x 40 inches, collection of the nevada museum of art, center for art + environment archive collections

also on the site of some of zittel’s high desert test sites projects is the ‘wagon station encampment’. first covered by designboom back in 2012, the project comprises a series of sleeping pods adjacent to the artist’s home and studio amid the rugged landscape of joshua tree. twice a year, when the desert climate is mild, zittel invites artists, hikers, and researchers to stay in the encampment, facilitating social engagement and personal exploration. blending both communal and private spaces, the encampment reflects a ‘sci-fi pioneer aesthetic’ that zittel was innately drawn to. ‘everybody has their desert fantasy,’ she says, ‘my particular fantasy was probably living on an alien landscape.’ see a short film following life at the experimental ‘wagon station encampment’ by art21 on designboom here.

judy chicago,immolation from women and smoke, 1972
fireworks performance performed in the california desert © judy chicago/artists rights society (ARS), new york
photo courtesy of through the flower archives, courtesy of the artist; salon 94, new york; and jessica silverman gallery, san francisco

discover more land art projects on designboom here, including a ‘sinkhole floor drain’ in the village of yubulu zhai, china and the ‘walking wall’ by andy goldsworthy.

judy chicago, smoke bodies from women and smoke, 1972 | fireworks performance, performed in the california desert
© judy chicago/artists rights society (ARS) new york
photo courtesy of through the flower archives, courtesy of the artist; salon 94, new york; and jessica silverman gallery, san francisco

judy chicago, a butterfly for pomona, 2012 fireworks and flares | performed at pomona college, claremont, CA in collaboration with pyro spectaculars (rialto, CA) as part of the getty pacific standard time performance festival
© judy chicago/artists rights society (ARS), new york
photo © donald woodman/ARS, new york courtesy of the artist; salon 94, new york; and jessica silverman gallery, san francisco

untitled, HDTS 2 (2003), wade guyton, andy’s gamma gulch parcel, pioneertown
photo by regen projects, courtesy the artist and high desert test sites

video by art21

CA truck heads, HDTS 3 (2003), sarah vanderlip, behind the bail bonds, joshua tree
photo by sarah lyon, courtesy the artist and high desert test sites

body desert: end trails, HDTS 2011, bodycity, coyote dry lake, joshua tree
photo by andrea zittel, courtesy the artist and high desert test sites

untitled, HDTS 3 (2003), shannon ebner
courtesy the artist and high desert test sites

The post unearthing the past, present, and future of land art — the movement made in monumental natural expanses appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

in a large environmental installation, american artist agnes denes takes over five hectares of milan’s porta nuova neighbourhood, transforming the site into an agricultural ‘wheatfield’. the open space — positioned in the middle of skyscrapers and futuristic buildings of the city’s quickly developing skyline — was planted during a public sowing in february of this year in which 15,500 cubic meters of soil were transported to the area, and 1250 kg of odisseo variety seed (250 kg per hectare) were cultivated; in addition to the use of 5000 kg of fertilizer. situated in a public and partially residential urban setting, no agricultural sprays were used in its creation.

‘wheatfield’ takes over five hectares of land in milan’s city centre, with skyscrapers in the background
image courtesy of agostino osio

‘wheatfield’ was first carried out in new york in 1982, as a means of reflecting on issues of ecology, climate change and the future of the planet — all subjects which are even more pertinent in our contemporary society. the milan intervention has been realized by the fondazione riccardo catella, in partnership with fondazione nicola trussardi and confagricoltura to run during the 2015 expo, to reiterate the world event’s message of returning to the concrete simplicity of the land, the source of all life and prosperity. it also stands as a driving force for building community and social engagement, getting the public and local inhabitants involved in every stage of an experience that is closely tied to italy’s agricultural history. ‘wheatfield’ also sees the opening of a footpath that restores the porta nuova area of the city after 50 years of closure, and is growing within the perimeter of a future public park ‘biblioteca degli alberi’ (‘library of trees’ in italian).

stefano boeri’s ‘bosco verticale’ stands high above the ‘wheatfield’
image courtesy of agostino osio

a special event on july 9th, 2015 invited tourists and locals to participate in a great harvest celebration, in which the land was reaped, everyone taking home a bundle of wheat and a bag of the seeds that were used to cultivate the plot. with this gesture, denes seeks the opportunity to ask that we ‘plant seeds for the future generations to harvest‘, asking us all to carry the message of ‘wheatfield’ into our lives — that we should take responsibility for our own future, and the future of generations to come, to whom we must pass on fundamental values like sharing stewardship and solidarity. a questionnaire was prepared by the artist encourages the public to reflect on the state of our natural environment and the effects of global warming on our planet; with the data and responses being collected and preserved in a special time capsule. the performance also revealed secrets of the harvest, as well as demonstrating ancient techniques of reaping wheat with scythes and threshing it with flails — to modern operations of a combine and baler.

a great harvest of wheat grows in the italian city
image courtesy of agostino osio

the artwork is at part of the ‘micoltivo: the green circle’ urban revitalization project that is part of fondazione riccardo catella’s calendar of civic and cultural initiatives dedicated to the porta nuova smart community in 2015.

on july 9th, the ‘wheatfield’ was cultivated
image © designboom

‘wheatfield’ asks us to reflect on issues of ecology and climate change
image © designboom

reaping the land of its harvest
image courtesy of marco de scalzi

large tractors collect the wheat
image courtesy of marco de scalzi

the ‘wheatfield’ ready to be harvested
image © designboom

detail of the wheat
image © designboom

aerial view of the five hectare site in the heart of milan
image courtesy of agostino osio

the ‘wheatfield’ being cultivated
image courtesy of marco de scalzi

a look at today’s urban farming possibilities
image © designboom

the cultivation of ‘wheatfield’ whereby visitors were given a bundle of the crop, along with seeds to plant
image © designboom

the crop
image © designboom

bundles of wheat that grew as part of the artwork
image © designboom

harvest celebration of agnes denes’ ‘wheatfield’ in porta nuova, milan
video courtesy of fondazione riccardo catella / fondazione nicola trussardi / confagricoltura

1/12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post agnes denes plants a 5 hectare wheatfield amongst milan’s porta nuova skyscrapers appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.