American multimedia artist Doug Aitken has teamed up with Levi’s to launch a travelling art initiative, Station to Station: A Nomadic Happening, in the USA. Over three weeks in September, an unusual train designed as an art studio will be making stops in ten U.S. cities, bringing site-specific “happenings” and “cultural interventions” to each of destinations on the list.
The project made possible by Levi’s, known for its passion for explorations and pushing the boundaries, will unite a roster of high-profile contemporary artists, musicians, filmmakers, writers, and chefs. The artistic team will be traveling by an Aitken-designed train that looks like a huge kinetic sculpture. It will be used both as a means of transportation and as a cultural studio—the unique content and experiences will be broadcast from the ten stops as well as from the moving train.
The first stop is slated for September 6 in NYC, then traveling to LA, Chicago, Kansas and other cities. The tour, rolling from from the Atlantic to the Pacific, will culminate in Oakland/San Francisco, Calif. on September 28, and there also will be a documentary and a book about the artistic traveling roadshow following the end of the tour.
The ticket on-sale dates, programming, digital and media partnerships will be announced later this summer. Watch a video above to get a sneak peek into the upcoming effort.
Station to Station: A Nomadic Happening will not be just an artistic experiment. It will also raise funds through ticket sales and donations to support non-traditional programs and exhibits at seven partner U.S. museums including MoMA PS1, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and Carnegie Museum of Art among others in 2014.
“This is a fast moving cultural journey, a constant search over the new horizons of our changing culture. Grounded in some basic questions —Who are we? Where are we going? And, at this moment, how can we express ourselves? —our intention is to create a modern cultural manifesto. For a short time, the most interesting place in the country will be a moving target,” shared Mr Aitken.