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The contemporary site-specific art exhibition, Desert X, returns to Coachella Valley

2019-02-14T12:41:00-05:00

Desert X, the enormous site-specific art exhibition set across the Coachella Valley, has returned this weekend for its second edition. Run by a nonprofit organization that includes artist Ed Ruscha on its board, the 2019 biennial features 18 works that respond to the desert's history and embrace a "range of ecological, environmental and social issues that have been driving conversations about our role in the anthropocene," says artistic director Neville Wakefield.

Revolutions by Nancy Baker Cahill. Photo by Lance Garber.

After an incredibly successful inaugural run in 2017, the biennial has expanded its programming this year to include film and augmented reality projects, such as Nancy Baker Cahill's Revolutions and Margins of Error, both of which bring colorful animations to the Valley's windmill farms and the Salton Sea, respectively, through the use of the 4th Wall app. Fifty miles away in Palm Springs, John Gerrard, the Irish artist known for his digital simulations, has brought...

Superflex to take over the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern

2017-03-21T12:32:00-04:00

Each year, the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern in London houses a site-specific work designed specially for the massive space. This year, the Danish collective Superflex will install a work, the details of which are under wraps until October 3.

Founded in 1993 by the artists Bjørnstjerne Christiansen, Jakob Fenger and Rasmus Nielsen, Superflex are known for their participatory and engaging installation work. The group describes their work as Tools, or proposals that invite audiences to join in experimental models intended to alter economic production conditions and engage in democratic processes.

“Their work raises timely questions about the role of the artist in contemporary society, exploring how we interpret and engage with the increasingly complex world around us,” states Frances Morris, director of the Tate Modern. “I can’t wait to see how they tackle these themes within the unique scale and public context of Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall.”

Rem Koolhaas, Ai Weiwei, Superflex and others take part in Gwangju Folly Project

2013-11-08T15:09:00-05:00

Architectural follies impose on our assumptions of what architecture is and what it should be -- what is function, what is beauty, where do private and public space meet. Gwangju Folly II, part of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation, highlights the politicization of public space through multiple folly-interventions in Gwangju. The project includes follies by Ai Weiwei, Rem Koolhaas and Ingo Niermann, Superflex, Raqs Media Collective, David Adjaye and Taiye Selasi, among others, this November 10-11.

Artistic Director Nikolaus Hirsch, with curators Philipp Misselwitz and Eui Young Chun, focus the follies on the contentiousness of public space, and its operation on the global scale. Positioned throughout the city, some follies are mobile (Ai Weiwei's "Cubic-meter Food Cart", a rumination on South Korea's pojangmachas) while others highly site-specific (Rem Koolhaas and Ingo Niermann's "The Vote" is installed in a high-traffic commercial area).

As the setting for Gwangju’s Democratic ...

Copenhagen’s Superkilen Urban Park by BIG + Topotek1 + Superflex

2013-01-16T14:00:00-05:00

Earlier this week, we published the winners of the 2013 AIA Institute Honor Awards with eight projects from around the world being recognized in the category "Regional and Urban Design." One of the lucky award winners is Superkilen, an urban park master plan in Copenhagen designed by BIG in collaboration with landscape architects Topotek1 and artists' group Superflex.