Desert X 2025 unveils To Breathe – Coachella Valley installation by Kimsooja
The installation To Breathe – Coachella Valley by renowned conceptual artist Kimsooja invites audiences to experience the elemental connection between body, space, and light in the desert environment of Desert Hot Springs.
Located on Pierson Boulevard between Foxdale Drive and Miracle Hill Road, this artwork commissioned by Desert X 2025, draws from Kimsooja’s extensive multidisciplinary practice that spans sculpture, painting, performance, and installation.
Her work consistently explores themes of interconnectedness, cultural identity, and the cycles of life, and this piece brings those ideas into sharp focus through a striking architectural intervention.
Constructed as a transparent glass pavilion, the installation encourages viewers to become part of the performance by engaging directly with the desert surroundings—the heat of the sand, the stillness of the air, and the ever-shifting quality of natural light.
Wrapped in a unique diffraction film, the structure becomes a “bottari of light,” referencing the artist’s frequent use of bottaris—traditional Korean fabric bundles that carry personal belongings.
The film acts as a luminous textile, etched with thousands of fine lines that resemble the warp and weft of woven cloth. As sunlight passes through, it casts kaleidoscopic patterns, enveloping visitors in a shifting spectrum of color and sensation.
Mirrors and optical elements, longstanding features of Kimsooja’s work, reflect her deep engagement with the impermanence of light and its philosophical underpinnings. This installation resonates with her earlier project in AlUla, Saudi Arabia, drawing a line between two distant deserts through the shared breath of air and light.
While it acknowledges the legacy of the Light and Space movement native to California, To Breathe – Coachella Valley also transcends geography, infusing Eastern philosophies—Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism—with a contemporary, female voice from East Asia.
The result is a contemplative experience that blurs boundaries between viewer and environment, art and ritual, material and immaterial. In the quiet openness of the Coachella Valley, Kimsooja invites reflection on the fragility and beauty of the present moment, offering a meditative space that reconnects us to the invisible forces that bind humanity together.
All images by Lance Gerber, with courtesy Desert X, shared with permission
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