Hailing it as the largest arts event in the nation, including more than 70 exhibitions in multiple Southern California counties, Getty officials Tuesday lauded the pending opening of “PST Art: Art & Science Collide,” which will highlight the work of more than 800 artists.
The regional collaboration, previously titled Pacific Standard Time but now shortened to PST ART, will also feature a host of performing arts and public programs, a Climate Impact Program and educational programs.
“PST ART was born of institutions, large and small, coming together in the realization that some of the most vital and compelling subjects in the arts, the ones with the potential to alter our fundamental understanding of the world, are simply too vast for any one institution to address,” Katherine E. Fleming, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, said in a statement. “Now PST ART takes on its most ambitious subject yet: Art & Science Collide.”
According to organizers, the five-month project will explore topics ranging from “biotechnology to sustainable agriculture, from ancient cosmologies to Indigenous sci-fi, and from artificial intelligence to environmental justice.”
“Southern California has both a distinctive, perpetually innovative art scene and one of the most important scientific communities in the world,” Joan Weinstein, director of the Getty Foundation, said. “When we invited institutions throughout the region to join in `Art & Science Collide,’ they responded with dozens of projects that spark curiosity and speak to urgent, real-world concerns: climate change, artificial intelligence, bioengineering, environmental justice, and more. Audiences will now see the work of more than 800 artists and the myriad ways art and science have interacted throughout time and up to the present moment.”
The event will officially begin on Sunday at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which will play host to artist Cai Guo-Qiang’s pyrotechnic display titled “WE ARE: Explosion Event for PST ART.”
The fireworks display will begin at dusk, with more than 10,000 mini firework shells installed throughout the Coliseum’s seating bowl, along with more than 1,000 aerial drones carrying pyrotechnics. Organizers said it will be “the first event of its kind in U.S. history.”
The display “will ignite the sky with images that showcase the AI’s revelation of a `heavenly secret’ through the reduction of dimensionality. The performance will recall the myth of Prometheus’ theft of fire from the gods and suggesting a present-day parallel in the relationship between humanity and AI.”
Following that explosive beginning, “PST ART” will continue with more than 70 linked exhibitions and dozens of public programs held throughout Southern California, including institutions in Los Angeles, Palm Springs, San Diego, Irvine and Santa Barbara.
The Getty provided more than $20 million in grants in support of the event.
Among the individual programs included will be a runway fashion show at the Getty Center highlighting “futuristic creations,” an evening of deep-space communication hosted by comedian Reggie Watts and curated by Jet Propulsion Laboratory, climate change programs for youth activists, and a launch of a replica of the Sputnik satellite presented by the Wende Museum.
More information on the programming is available online at pst.art.