In March 2018, The Bombay Beach Biennale took place at the shores of the Salton Sea. This renegade gathering was a celebration of and for the locals, artists, creators and volunteers who are transforming Bombay Beach into a newly relevant year-round cultural destination. The Biennale is an exuberant celebration of art, music, and philosophy, which leaves a lasting mark on Bombay Beach, a small town at that refuses to be forgotten or written off, even as the man-made lake it was built upon risks disappearing.
(Un)contained within the limits of the town, around 500 locals, artists, builders, creators, and volunteers were invited to explore and stumble upon the abandoned houses and vacant lots that serve as a canvas for many artists while also attending the concerts, operas, ballets, lectures, movie screenings, and art exhibits that took place throughout the town. Many installations, such as the the Opera House, The Hermitage Museum, Drive-In Theater, The Institute, Angler Grove, and Nine, have become permanent gifts to the town.
Highlights Include:
The Bombay Beach Opera House – A dilapidated house transformed into a state-of-the-art performing arts space masterminded by artist James Ostrer. On Friday night, Jesca Hoop serenaded the stage. On Saturday, performance pieces by San Francisco Ballet prima ballerina Maria Kotchekova and her partner Sebastian Kloberg were followed by a Clown Opera by Kate Feld.
The Hermitage Museum Bombay Beach – Greg Haberny opened a new exhibit “Why Do I Destroy Everything I Love?” alongside works by renowned artists Camille Schefter, Thomas Linder, Jon Pylypchuk, Bill Saylor, and Theodore Boyer. The Museum is a permanent gift to the town. Tours are available upon request. Just ask Steve at the Ski Inn.
The Bombay Beach Institute of Particle Physics, Metaphysics & International Relations – Part museum/gallery, part performance space and home to a new Community Garden, The Institute showcased art installations and permanent exhibits by photographers Robert Stivers, Stefanie Schneider, and others paintings and sculptures by Damian Elwes, Bill Attaway, Wyatt Mills, performances by The Glitch Mob, Adam Freeland, Vera Sola, Blue Book and lectures on the theme of “God’s Silence” by Oxford University philosopher Mark Wrathall, Columbia University professor and activist Christia Mercer, New York Times bestselling author Christopher Ryan (Sex at Dawn) and many others.
The Ski Inn – World Infamous as the “Lowest Bar in the Western Hemisphere”, the Ski Inn served as the epicenter for folk, blues, and soul concerts from Vera Sola, Willy Mason, C.W. Stoneking, and Reverend Tall Tree.
Angler Grove - A revelatory woodland portal and psychedelic human terrarium in the bones of a dilapidated bachelor pad by artist Randy Polumbo.
The Tesseract: Possibly the world’s largest representation of a 4 dimensional hypercube by S. Shigley aka Shig. Lighting design by Jessica Steiner and Ashley Hillis.
Pythia: Pythia, the House of Snakes (named the Classical Greek Delphic Oracle's Omphalos) is a live/work/sound space that offers a quite literal window to the other-side: a site of performative creation channeled from the past, from the future and from beyond the edges of this world, curated and maintained by musician-medium Vera Sola.
“Nine” at the Bombay Beach Botanical Gardens: Artist Yassi Mazandi unveiled a new super-sized "flower vertebrae" in her "flowerbed" series of porcelain sculpture.
Toxic Tango - a work in progress by De Cock: a dance between the ongoing decay of the Salton Sea with a nod to the continuous pollution of our oceans. Both bodies of water unite with paint for this lascivious dance to attract consciousness towards our current problems. Go and witness the duet for yourself at the B&B MOTEL.
The Bombay Beach Drive-In - an outdoor movie theatre featuring car shells, boats, and off-road vehicles newly renovated for Year Two and gifted to the town as a year round cinema, but with curated film series during the Biennale. This year’s theme- Sea of Love: Monsters in the Water.
The Bombay Beach Estates – An art park containing multiple installations by Thomas Linder, and Camille Schefter, featuring around-the-world sounds from Zee Avi, Jeremy Sole, The Toledo Show, and Café Bosna.
The Last Resort – The forthcoming "hotel de ville" of Bombay Beach. Artist Greg Haberny created a prototype room, Suite 406, at the Petit Ermitage Hotel. It will soon be reconstructed as the first room of the Last Resort.
CONTRIBUTORS
Academic Wrangler
Emily Wells
All Star Crew
Chris Ashe, Karsten Taylor, Justin Thomson, Vlad Is Love, Don Anderson, Megan Kinney, Liza O, Sean Taylor
A Quiet Apparition
Thomas Linder
Angler Grove
Randy Polumbo
The Annex At The Hermitage
Theodore Boyer
Artist Shelter & Mirage Lights
Mack Suprastudio
El Barco De La Muerte
Sean Guerrero
Bombay Beach Metro
David Corcoran & Tao Ruspoli
Blood Loss
Simon Majarian
Bombay Boom
Kenny Scharf
Cross Roads
William Attaway
Crucifiction
Pour Vous
Den Mother
Lauren Brand
Desert Yacht Club
Alessandro Giuliano
Disco-tron
Mack Suprastudio, IDEAS UCLA
The East Wing At The Hermitage
Camille Schefter
The Enabler
Arwen Byrd
Exposition Hall
Mack Suprastudio, Ideas Ucla
Fauxasis
Ray Ewing
Film/Documentation
Susanna Della Sala And Andrea Jose Di Pasquale
Fish
Damian Elwes
Graphics And Design
Bella Freud & Anna Meloyan
Logo/Map/Program
Greg Haberny Art Assistants
Emilie Tisdale, Yelyzaveta Onysko
Haus Der Sinne
Moral Turgeman
Hinterlands Kiosk
Feral Office
Dry West - Moonscapes
Uwe H. Martin
Joshua Muse, Etc
Sven Van Driessche
Limit To Evidence
Camille Schefter
Lost And Found Pt. 1, And Pt. 2
Jackson Hunt
Lour Des, Etc
Carmen De Vos
Love Machine
Marco Walker
The Main Hall At The Hermitage
Greg Haberney
Mobile-sanctuary
Daniel Schubert, Aryana Minai
Moontruck
Giancarlo Neri
Nature's Whisper (Fibonacci Birds)
Sarah Kate Larsen
Nine
Yassi Mazandi
Out Of The Ruins
Loveleen Brar
The Perimeter W Eye Dream Tv
Gabriela Garcia, Tracy Chung
Puppet Master
Jen Tighe
Resident Poet And Gardener
Praxedes De Villallonga
Rusty Safari
William Attaway
Salt Of My Skin, Etc
Kirsten Thys Van Den Audenaerde
Salty
Ray Ewing And Adrian Pijoan
Save Me
Olivia Steele
Lenses At The Shore
Moral Tugerman
Sculptures From The Sea
Debra Berger
Shaguar
Stefan Ashkenazy
[Souvenir] Of Bombay Beach
WASA And Emmanuelle Raoul-duvai
Tempus Mortem
Zander Rose
The Tesseract
Shig, Jessica Steiner, Ashley Hillis, Tessa Mac, Tao Ruspoli
The Asylum
Robert Mack
The Big Fish
Samora Deng, Bezaleel Balan
The Bombay Beach Institute Of Particle Physics, Metaphysics And International Relations
Bombay Beach Collective
The Bombay Beach Opera House
James Ostrer
The Bombay Beach Particle Accelerator
David Corcoran & Tao Ruspoli
The Don Johnson
Stefan Ashkenazy
The Drive-in
Stefan Ashkenazy & Sean Dale Taylor
The Drive-in Car Art
Colin Hornett, Karl Harpur, Greg Pulier, Brandon Anderson, Paris Pickard, Valentina Avayu
The Great Wall Of Grenier
Anonymous
The Promenade A The Hermitage
Bill Saylor
The Sculpture Garden At The Hermitage
Jon Pylypchuk
The Trick Is To Keep Breathing, Etc
Julia Beyer
Toxic Tango
Charlotte De Cock
Troubled Waters 1, 2, 3...
Nellie King Solomon
Untitled
Bill Saylor
Overtime
Taira Tsukioka
Venus De Milo
Alexandra Sand
Venus Of The Salton Sea, Exhibit 121-museum Of Natural History 2089
Annie Pendergrast
Vert
Bill Saylor
Victorian Flacon, Etc
Stefanie Schneider
Mirage Lights
Mack Suprastudio, IDEAS UCLA