Accompanying the major international musical acts at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Los Angeles between 12 and 14 April and 19 and 21 April 2024 were a trio of large-scale art installations curated by the Public Art Company in collaboration with Coachella’s Art Director Paul Clemente.
The three newly-commissioned artworks, each one inviting festival goers to engage and explore with multi-dimensional forms, were created by London-based artist and Design Indaba alum Morag Myerscough, Leslie Lok and Sasa Zivkovic’s New York studio HANNAH, and Nebbia, a London studio led by Brando Posocco and Madhav Kidao.
‘Art has the power to transform spaces and minds alike,’ said Raffi Lehrer, founder of Public Art Company. ‘We aimed to not only adorn the festival grounds but to create environments that provoke thought, evoke emotion, and encourage a shared experience among all attendees. Our collaboration with these incredible artists brought a fresh perspective to what art at a music festival can be.’
Myerscough, world-renowned for her bold, colourful installations, exceeded all expectations with her massive interactive piece ‘Dancing in the Sky’. Occupying a 38 metre-square area within the festival grounds and dotted with a range of structures towering up to 18 metres high, ‘Dancing in the Sky’ crafted a skyline that captivated the imagination and directed festival goers’ gazes upwards towards the desert sky. The geometric plaza, with its kaleidoscopic tunnels and gateways, encouraged exploration at ground level while kinetic elements and abstract shapes moved with the breeze.
Elsewhere on the festival grounds ‘Monarchs: A House in Six Parts’ by HANNAH explored the fusion of 3D printing with traditional craftsmanship, presenting a series of pavilions that invite interaction and contemplation. This installation, a collaboration between Cornell University professors Lok and Zivkovic, reimagined architectural design through the lens of digital fabrication and natural inspiration, while ‘Babylon’ by Nebbia offered a study in contrasts, blending ancient architectural forms with futuristic design elements. The work of London-based architects Posocco and Kidao, Babylon is a monumental structure that served as both a visual landmark and a sanctuary of shade and light, inviting festival-goers to lose themselves in its intricate, otherworldly beauty.
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Morag Myerscough on transforming spaces with colour and embrasing the unknown
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