At the 2025 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, California, art installations brought together light, motion, and ephemerality, reshaping the desert landscape into a series of immersive experiences. The programme, curated by Raffi Lehrer of Public Art Company alongside Paul Clemente of Goldenvoice, focused on the theme of transience, with artworks that blurred the lines between solidity and illusion.
Isabel + Helen's "Take Flight" presented a 60-foot-tall kinetic sculpture inspired by wind. By day, the motorised turbines created rhythmic, magnetic movement, while by night, it became a luminous spectacle reflecting the energy of the desert.
Uchronia's "Le Grand Bouquet" showcased giant inflatable flowers that glowed softly, offering shade and communal space beneath their petals. The work shifted with the sun, transitioning from a surreal garden to a glowing mirage, evoking nostalgia and fleeting beauty.
Stephanie Lin's "Taffy" featured seven towering cylinders wrapped in wavy mesh, swaying in the breeze to form moiré patterns. The installation combined visual softness with structural scale and invited visitors to pause on curved benches nestled within. The colours, inspired by mid-century modernism, changed throughout the day with the movement of light.
Since 2016, Coachella's art programme has emphasised architectural ambition and site-specific creation, involving artists, designers, and large-scale fabricators. This year, sustainability was prioritised, with modular construction and future reuse in mind. Some past pieces, like Diébédo Francis Kéré's "Sarbalé Ke", have even found permanent homes.
Coachella 2025 reaffirmed the festival's status as a convergence point for music, design, and architecture, where artistic vision is not only seen, but experienced.
Source: www.archiportale.com