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Obnoxious Little Pool Installed In The Middle Of The Desert In The Name Of Art
Art these days has gone well beyond the reach of most people, and Alfredo Barsuglia's latest piece seems to be at the extreme end of the problem.
While art in ostensibly public spaces like museums require admission, Basuglia's latest piece, Social Pool requires a full tank of gas and the wherewithal to schlep through the Mojave Desert on foot to an unmarked location.
The installation is a small pool out in the middle of the Mojave Desert whose location is unknown except to those who decide to embark on the journey. To visit Social Pool, art connoisseurs fist must visit the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in West Hollywood, where Barsuglia was a resident in 2006, to get the key and the GPS coordinates.
"There is no road. There is no fence. There is no sign. There is no trail. You just come on it. I'm sure some people won't find it," Barsuglia told the LA Times in a sign of the snobby high-minded attitude that has polluted the art world. Sure I made this great art piece but it's too bad people most people won't get (to) it.
The piece "was conceived of as an experience encompassing a potentially transformative journey, a promise of relaxation, the peace of remoteness, all while staying tuned in" according to its own website. Short version: it's about the journey not the destination, man. It's also about luxuries and consumption or something.
This isn't the Austrian artist's first foray into the Mojave in the name of art. In 2008, he half-buried a house outside of Flamingo Heights for Oderfla Beauty Resort. That one's about the ephemeral nature of human beauty or some other deep shit.
If you do plan on visiting Social Pool, all you need to do is visit the MAK Center and see if the key, which is required to open the pool, is available. If you luck out, you will also be provided with the coordinates and will be allowed to have the key for 24 hours. Contrary to what the website says, reservations are no longer accepted.
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Social Pool will remain open until September 30.
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