coachella 2023 art installations immerse visitors in a world of vibrant architectural beacons

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2023

On April 14-16 and April 21-23, 2023, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Art Program returns with new, large-scale immersive works from renowned local and international artists and designers. Through light and color, the installations will invite playful reimaginings and explorations in multiple dimensions, create new spaces for connection and community, and add new, multi-sensory dimensions to the festival’s music performances.

Spanning the entirety of Empire Polo Field, the newly commissioned works include sculptural pieces by creatives across the globe: Kumkum Fernando, Vincent Leroy, Güvenç Özel, and Maggie West. Their works will act as fresh, colorful, and architectural beacons to attract, inspire, nourish and guide festival-goers, offering them a sense of joy freedom, and calm. 

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2023 installation view of Kumkum Fernando, The Messengers, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy Coachella

‘Surprise encounters with these outsized projects in the middle of the valley, surrounded by music and the collective energy of the crowd has become a much-anticipated shared experience at the Festival, and some of the works have been woven into the archetypal imagery of Coachella,’ mentions Paul Clemente, who manages the art program for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. ‘The arts program has evolved significantly since inception and the participants, who come from around the world and from Southern California are well-respected in their fields, presenting extraordinary and thoughtful works in a setting where they can inspire, inform, and invite direct engagement with art and current social and cultural themes and ideas. It is a unique aspect of this Festival, and we really endeavor to carry that spark into the community with adjacent school programs and our on-site Coachella Arts Studios.’

‘In selecting projects from around the world, our intention is to bring together artists, architects and designers whose practices invite participation, inclusion, and transformation. We strive to create a multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural program that reflects our audience and the many performing artists that grace the stages of the festival. The resulting works will become icons — part of the identity of this year’s show. These installations act simultaneously as
way-finding markers, points of congregation, and most importantly, accessible entry points for all show-goers to experience art.’ adds Curatorial Advisor Raffi Lehrer. 

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2023 installation view of Güvenç Özel, Holoflux, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy Coachella

Kumkum Fernando merges design and sri lankan heritage

Kumkum Fernando transforms found objects into works of art informed by Sri Lanka’s millennia-old culture. From ornate temple paintings to folktales and the vast underworld with its gods, giants, and demons, Fernando draws inspiration from this heritage. The Sri Lankan-born artist combines design with a deep appreciation for ancient and traditional forms, even combining his works with poetry he has written himself.

‘My installations at the festival draw a parallel resemblance to my previous sculptures of gods and robots. These new works are by far the biggest I have ever dreamt of making. The festival will showcase figurines, which I have created solely for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. The inspiration for these works comes from a combination of South Asian art/architecture, Hindu mythology, personal memories, as well as imagery of retro-futurism.’ Fernando shares with designboom. ‘My intention is not to force a connection between the past and the future, but rather to create a new world where they can coexist. The fusion of Asian cultural elements with futuristic designs in my sculptures is a natural expression of my artistic vision. I am not attempting to impose any particular meaning or message onto my work, but rather to explore the possibilities of combining different elements to create something entirely new and unique.’

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2023 installation view of Kumkum Fernando, The Messengers, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy Coachella

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2023 installation view of Kumkum Fernando, The Messengers, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy Coachella

Vincent Leroy plays with reflections and superimpositions

Vincent Leroy, who often travels to the most remote and sometimes uninhabited corners of the world to exhibit his ethereal artwork, has created a special installation for the Coachella desert landscape. Through his work, the French artist questions our perception of real and imagined spaces in the context of our increasingly digitalized world. Through the manipulation of waves, reflections, and superimpositions that open up new dimensions, his installations inspire contemplation and meditation, touching the body and releasing emotions.

‘My work is often based on movement and Molecular Cloud is a continuation of research and a subsequent project, Molecules, imagined in 2022. Inspired by the scientific universe and molecular structures, the idea for this series was to use movement to transform combinations of simple geometric shapes – spheres – into organic and more complex shapes. For the Coachella art program, the same module is repeated seven times, and the whole thing forms the appearance of a moving cloud floating above people’s heads.’ Leroy tells designboom. ‘I like my works to be part of the real world, while providing another perspective by adding a poetic or dreamlike dimension. This will also be the case for Coachella’s Molecular Cloud. From a distance, the installation evokes giant pink clouds floating in the air and from close up you can see the festival, the sky and the people reflected in the colored spheres. Furthermore, the augmented reality experience developed around the work with the Coachella team reinforces its dreamlike dimension and the idea of dialogue between reality and fiction.’

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2023 installation view of Vincent Leroy, Molecular Cloud, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy Coachella

Güvenç Özel introduces us to artificial intelligence

Cyber-Physical architect, artist, and critical technologist Güvenç Özel is an interdisciplinary innovator and internationally recognized pioneer of augmented reality, interactive robotics and machine learning in architecture. With a curatorial intervention at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Turkish creative introduced the world to architectural and artistic applications of augmented reality and explored how contemporary technologies and media shape the socio-political and aesthetic landscape of digital culture and the built environment.

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2023 view of installations left to right_ Kumkum Fernando, The Messengers; Güvenç Özel, Holoflux, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy Coachella

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2023 installation view of Güvenç Özel, Holoflux, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy Coachella

Maggie West brings bold superbloom to coachella

Maggie West is known for her colorful photo and video installations of plants and flowers that push the boundaries of traditional time-lapse photography and sit at the intersection of documentation and fantasy. The Los Angeles-based artist’s large-scale, photography-centered sculptural installations have become a significant part of the Los Angeles cultural landscape. Her work for this year’s festival, which promises to add a bold superbloom to the festival’s desert landscape, will be one of the world’s largest three-dimensional color photography installations.

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2023 installation view of Maggie West, Eden, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy Coachella

spectra installation returns for its fourth year

Robert Bose, the New York artist behind the quarter-mile-long kinetic Balloon Chain, DoLaB, the Los Angeles-based creative team that transforms venues into fantastical and interactive experiences inspired by human connection, authenticity and environmental sustainability; and Don Kennell, the Santa Fe, New Mexico-based artist whose monumental animal sculptures connect audiences through explorations of nature and community, return with NEWSUBSTANCE, a British art and design studio that creates performative, site-specific and temporary works around the world. Their stunning, seven-story, architecturally inspired pavilion, Spectra, returns to the festival for the fourth year, inviting visitors to journey through its spiraling, colorful design to experience a new perspective on the world around them.

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2023 view of installations left to right_ NEWSUBSTANCE, Spectra; Güvenç Özel, Holoflux, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy Coachella

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2023 installation view of Güvenç Özel, Holoflux, photo by Lance Gerber, courtesy Coachella

Coachella Art Studios provides safe space for self-expression

Committed to art, culture and empowerment and led by Coachella Valley-based multidisciplinary artist, educator and executive director Marnie L. Navarro, Raices Cultura, a grassroots arts and culture nonprofit organization located in the city of Coachella, will again recruit and mentor 20 youth who live in the East Valley cities of Coachella, Indio, Mecca, Thermal, and La Quinta to form an artist cohort and build an art installation for the festival campground based on their shared approach to theme and aesthetics. The women-led Coachella Art Studios will provide a safe, immersive, and inclusive space for Festival-goers to explore their creativity and express themselves.

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project info: 

event: Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Art Program
dates: April 14-16 and April 21-23, 2023