You won't find clowns in the Los Angeles section of the traveling Balloon Museum, but there are plenty of other carnival-inspired sights and sounds to experience: huge inflated tents, lines marked with bright primary colors, and concessions fit for the middle of the road. .
The award-winning contemporary art museum presented its “Let's Fly” show last week for a limited run at the Arts District's Ace Mission Studios, which was previously home to the fantastic Luna Luna amusement park.
Founded in Rome in 2020, the museum has welcomed more than 4.4 million visitors on its tours in cities around the world, including Paris, Milan, Madrid, London, New York, Atlanta and Miami, among others. Each iteration is informed by the culture of the city that hosts it, with the sole central medium being air.
A cross between the sensory explosion of Meow Wolf and the labyrinthine nature of an IKEA store, the experience features installations by 21 artists with avant-garde interpretations of inflatable and balloon art. The exhibition, which runs until March 16, is very immersive and very Instagrammable. Here are six things you should know before your visit.
1. The experience begins before you even enter the building.
The Sixth Street Viaduct is in the background of the outdoor exhibition “DREAMS” by artist Camila Falsini.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
The museum opens with a walk through the gardens, more specifically, “DREAMS” by Camila Falsini, a series of shapes, symbols and oversized inflatable igloos meant to evoke a dream city inspired by pop art and the Memphis Group.
The works, created especially for the “Let's Fly” exhibition in Los Angeles, are striped, splotchy, donut-shaped and light up in the night sky like condensed, blimp versions of Ugo Rondinone's “Seven Magic Mountains” sculpture.
Just inside, Max Streicher's “Quadriga” features enormous, undulating horses reminiscent of wingless pegasi in the way they appear to gallop through the air. And the facilities continue throughout the gift shop, which is situated between a series of photo backdrops and a food court offering concessions like popcorn and cotton candy.
2. The strongest common thread between the works is not the balloons but the air.
Maristella Burchietti is immersed in the exhibition “AI Data Portal of Los Angeles” by the Ouchhh collective.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
The connection between data and air may not be immediately made, but the Ouchhh collective's “Los Angeles AI Data Portal,” an immersive tunnel of LED screens streaming an abstract mash-up of Excel spreadsheets, documents, graphics and other digital ephemera, reimagines the city cloud. data like thousands of small colored beads. The room, which has a dizzying effect, is reminiscent of Yayoi Kusama's “Infinity Mirror Rooms” at the Broad, but looks more like something out of the quantum universe of Ant-Man.
Another exhibit, the museum's newest work, “Butterfly” by Oakland-based LED artist Christopher Schardt, features an enormous fluttering butterfly propelled by a swinging bench and illuminated by more than 39,000 full-color LEDs. The most airy and balloon-like element of this room are the plush poufs, on which guests are encouraged to recline and relax.
3. You will want to relive your childhood by diving into the huge ball pit.
The “Hyperstellar” exhibition, created by Hyperstudio, Quiet Ensemble and Roman Hill, is one of many interactive art spaces.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
There are many excellent and memorable exhibits at the museum, but perhaps the pièce de résistance is the enormous Olympic-sized ball pit that features flashing light shows in which additional balls and spotlights descend from the already bulbous ceiling. If Matthew McConaughey's “interstellar” astronaut stumbled upon a planet dominated by palm-sized black balls, it might look like this.
Indeed, “Hyperstellar,” by Hyperstudio with Quiet Ensemble and Roman Hill, is intended to evoke reflections on the cosmos, with the surrounding walls wrapped with LED screens broadcasting 360-degree views of water droplets and exploding air bubbles.
4. If you are sensitive to light, be careful with Los Ginjos
The exhibition “The Ginjos” by Rub Kandy is one of the most intense spaces in the museum.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
While there are many rooms within the museum that appeal to the senses of touch, hearing and sight (including a dimly lit bubble room with wet, soft floors), visitors at risk of seizures should avoid “Los Ginjos,” an installation full of strange inflatable creatures that are something like Minions on acid.
Even the museum's description, which describes Rub Kandy's creations as having “huge, all-seeing eyes,” is a little creepy. Add to that pulsating strobe lights and oversized, mouthless, squishy cyclops, and you've got all the makings of a nightmarish ride. Speaking of travel…
5. Consider visiting the museum a little lively.
Another “Let's Fly” exclusive, ENESS' “Spiritus Sonata,” features hallucinogenic elephant-balloon hybrids that are straight out of Winnie the Pooh's psychedelic “Heffalumps and Woozles” scene. Imagine mastodon-like creatures whose noses are wind instruments that inflate structures and emit sound.
While there were makeshift wine bars set up intermittently throughout the space during the media preview, it's unclear if the museum will provide provisions for the general public. But customers who participate before arriving will definitely have an enhanced experience in the mind-blowing rooms.
6. Wear something Instagrammable – there's an opportunity to take a selfie by the exit!
Maristella Burchietti stands at one of the museum's selfie spots.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
No modern museum is complete without plenty of social media photo opportunities, and the Globe Museum saves the best for last.
In the museum's final hallway, just after a virtual reality headset experience and before the gift shop and food court, are eight jewel-toned cubicles decorated with props for the perfect Instagram post, minimally decorated but with vivid colors.
Choose from a huge headless gummy bear, a phone booth filled with balloons, a cloudscape, Los Angeles-ready angel wings, and other poppy backgrounds for a unique photo experience. Because if it's not posted on Instagram, did you even go?
