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DESERT X 2023 ENDS MAY 7

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NEWLY-COMMISSIONED WORKS BY 12 ARTISTS FROM EUROPE, NORTH AMERICA AND SOUTH ASIA EXAMINE SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL THEMES, THE CHANGES THAT GIVE FORM TO A WORLD INCREASINGLY SHAPED BY CLIMATE CRISIS, GLOBALISM, AND THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC MIGRATIONS THAT FOLLOW IN THEIR WAKE.

NOW ON VIEW, FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

 

Palm Springs, Calif., March 4, 2023 – Desert X, the recurring site-specific, international art exhibition, opens its fourth edition today at sites across the Coachella Valley, California. The exhibition is free and open to all and will remain on view through May 7, 2023.

Curated by Artistic Director Neville Wakefield and Co-Curator Diana Campbell, the exhibition will activate the desert landscape through 12 installations by artists from Europe, North America and South Asia, whose poetic and immersive works span sculpture, painting, photography, writing, architecture, design, film, music, performance and choreography, education, and environmental activism.

Participating artists:

Rana Begum, b. 1977, Bangladesh, based in London
Lauren Bon, b. 1962, USA, based in Los Angeles
Gerald Clarke, b. 1967, USA, based in Anza, California
Paloma Contreras Lomas, b. 1991, Mexico, based in Mexico City
Torkwase Dyson, b. 1973, USA, based in Beacon, New York
Mario García Torres, b.1975, Mexico, based in Mexico City
Hylozoic/Desires (Himali Singh Soin, b. 1987, India, based in London and Delhi and David Soin Tappeser, b.1985, Germany, based in London and Delhi) 
Matt Johnson, b. 1978, USA, based in Los Angeles
Tyre D. Nichols, b. 1993, USA
Tschabalala Self, b. 1990, USA, based in New York
Marina Tabassum, b. 1968, Bangladesh, based in Dhaka
Héctor Zamora, b. 1974, Mexico, based in Mexico City

Full descriptions and installation images of the artists’ projects are now available here

“There’s a saying attributed to the Kwakwaka’wakw nation that a place is a story happening many times,” says Wakefield. “This idea of place as the multiplicity of stories flowing through it is central to Desert X.

Artists are an essential part of this understanding and the ideas they bring to it irrigate our perception of place, nourishing the narratives already there and propagating those that have yet to be told.” 

In the exhibition, which builds on social and environmental themes explored in earlier editions, newly-commissioned works make visible, as instruments of self-awareness and devices of wonder, the forces that we exert on the world: how we design our environments, how we live, and the messages we send that reinforce systems that might or might not be beneficial for us.

From the local to the global, from schools and roads to global trade routes that define the ebb and flow of goods and many things in-between, infrastructure has subsumed creative ways of being that are inconvenient to forces of power. 

“Desert X 2023 can be seen as a collection of artistic interventions that make visible how our energy has a transference far beyond what we see just in front of us in our own localities,” says Campbell.

“From deserts to floodplains, finding, building and developing tools and tactics to shelter our minds and bodies from the harshness of the world outside are essential to survival.

In a time of global crisis, many of the artists have created spaces of freedom and possibility, suggesting new ways to build healing cultures of care that embrace and protect (bio) diversity, opening up opportunities for joy and hope anchored in justice.

Immersing ourselves in the stories of place also awakens us to its mythologies, whether they be religious texts or oral traditions across multitudes of belief systems that see us creating vessels to escape the flood as well as being cast into the arid wilderness to test the limits of existential and spiritual survival.”

Image credits left to right, top to bottom:

Desert X 2023 installation views of Rana Begum, No.1225 Chainlink;

Lauren Bon, The Smallest Sea with the Largest Heart; 

Gerald Clarke, Immersion; Paloma

Contreras Lomas, Amar a Dios en Tierra de Indios, Es Oficio Maternal;

Torkwase Dyson, Liquid A Place;

Mario García Torres, Searching for the Sky (While Maintaining Equilibrium); 

DESERT X 2023 OPENS TODAY THROUGH MAY 7

Hylozoic/Desires, Namak Nazar; 

Matt Johnson, Sleeping Figure

Tyre Nichols, Originals, GoFundMe Tyre Nichols Memorial Fund

Tschabalala Self, Pioneer;

Film still from Marina Tabassum, Khudi Bari;

Performance view of Héctor Zamora, Chimera — all photos Lance Gerber, courtesy Desert X.

  EXPERIENCE THE EXHIBITION

Desert X Visitor Guide and Map 
A special Desert X printed program available at the Desert X Hub at the Ace Hotel & Swim Club contains the map and up-to-date information on how to experience the exhibition and its public and education programs. The map of the 2023 installations can also be found online at desertx.org and via theDesert X 2023 app.

Leave No Trace
Desert X encourages visitors to follow official Leave No Trace guidelines. Plan ahead and prepare, walk on designated paths, dispose of waste properly, leave what you find, respect wildlife, don’t smoke, and be considerate of other visitors.

Desert X Hub at the Ace Hotel & Swim Club 
701 E Palm Canyon Dr, Palm Springs
Stop by to pick up your Desert X 2023 guide, map of artist installations and visitor information. Visit desertx.org for opening hours during the run of the exhibition. 

Exhibition Hours 
Visiting hours for the installations are usually sunrise to sunset Sunday through Saturday, unless otherwise noted. 

Guided and Docent-led tours
Desert X docents are at most sites every Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon.

Desert X Merchandise
463 North Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs
Stop by to browse and buy Desert X merchandise made with Windmill City Printing and other local companies. Visit super-number-one.com for hours.

Education and Public Programs
Desert X educational initiatives are a cornerstone of the exhibition’s outreach. Public programs include conversations, site activations, and artist-led workshops, and have connected with more than 10,000 visitors.

Since 2017, Desert X has provided 800 cumulative in-class instruction hours to 2,000 students and 50 teachers in the region. In 2023, Desert X is growing the breadth and depth of its reach through expanded learning programs in K-12 schools and community centers in all three Title 1 school districts in the Coachella Valley, internships, and a curatorial fellowship.

For further information and to plan your visit, go to desertx.org.

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