06 May At Coachella, Emerging Designers Create Oversize Installations

This year’s installations emphasize sustainability, but the festival still produces huge amounts of waste

A steel-framed, larger-than-life playground; animal-shaped facades covered with plants; and a towering sculpture of a guardian carrying her child—these are some of the installations that greeted visitors last weekend at this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California. Returning after a two-year, Covid-19-induced hiatus, the desert event boasts not just a host of musical guests, but also 11 artistic installations by creatives from seven countries across Europe, North America, and South and Central America.

“Building on our art program with designers, architects, and visual artists from around the world and from the Coachella Valley allows festival goers to explore shared global interests and perspectives through the experience of ambitious and one of a kind, large-scale installations,” said Paul Clemente, the festival’s art program manager, in a statement. “In the same way music is a universal language, the experience of these new spaces invites connectedness and adds an iconic sense of place in the spirit of the festival.”

Buoyed by Kiki Van Eijk

Designer Kiki Van Eijk formulated Buoyed: three four-storied, angled LED-lit sculptures (one off-white, one blue, and one green) which utilize elements from butterfly wings, Dutch-style windmills, and igloo domes in an effort to emphasize diversity and inclusiveness. An accomplished name in Dutch design, Van Eijk works with a diligent sense of whimsy and wonder while paying close attention to small details.

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