A New Video Game is Subverting the Secrecy of Michael Heizer’s ’City’
Digital artist Lily Belmira has released a free video game that lets users virtually visit Michael Heizer’s land artwork “City” in the Nevada desert, which is otherwise tightly controlled and difficult to access. Heizer’s “City,” which opened in 2022, spans more than 1.5 miles, admits only six visitors per day at $150 each, and has kept its precise location partly secret; it took about 50 years to build starting in the 1970s and cost $40 million. Belmira modeled the terrain using publicly available LIDAR data and Google Maps imagery, and designed the game to begin behind a no-trespassing fence as a critique of restricted access to art. She also points to the site’s role in helping secure surrounding land as a national monument by a 2015 executive order, and questions how an artwork seen by so few can carry such cultural power.
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This story was covered in Digital Biennales and Restitution Wars Escalate