Aspen’s Ambitious AIR Festival Turns the Rocky Mountains into a Stage
The Aspen Art Museum’s AIR festival returned for its second edition in Aspen, Colorado, transforming the mountain town into a multi-day program of art, performance, and talks under the theme “Figures in a Landscape.” A centerpiece was Matthew Barney’s new sculptural installation “ZONE DEFENSE: Old Snowmass Parallax,” shown in a ranch setting and incorporating trompe-l’oeil-painted materials (including bronze, steel, and aluminum) arranged to resemble PVC piping and weighted down, with jerseys referencing two NFL legends. Performances included an early-morning set by the musical duo Los Thuthanaka atop Aspen Mountain at more than 11,000 feet, reached by gondola at 9 a.m. The festival also presented Lucy Raven’s “film-performance” Murderers Bar on a 30-foot timber-built screen in an alpine meadow, accompanied by a live score by Deantoni Parks with ensemble musicians from the Aspen Music Festival and School.
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This story was covered in Van Gogh Returns, and the City’s Art Wars