The colourful and huge installation by the Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone, is located between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, in the middle of the desert in the border of Nevada. It was December 2015 when the artist thought about this work for the first time, imagining it inside a museum… but it wasn’t enough for him so he extended his sculptural exploration outside the traditional borders of walls and chose a majestic American desert. These 7 coloured art pieces are 35 meters tall and their location, along the interstate 15, represents for the artist a compromise between natural (the mountains all around and the desert) and artificial (the street, the traffic).
It was a curious discovery… during that summer, we were leaving for Vegas for work and we decided to take that chance to enjoy some more days visiting the area around. We were at the airport, waiting for our flight, and I bought a few travel and interior design magazines where I read an article that piqued my interest: it was talking about this wonderful installation and I realized that it was located near the place we were reaching… what a coincidence! I find out that the Seven Magic Mountains were just along the road we were going to take to reach LA.
I really couldn’t miss it, so, after some days of work, we left Las Vegas and we arrived at Seven Magic Mountains at sunset. We were there, watching the installation from the parking, quite far away, and we were looking forward to running under that huge sculptures… but first, we stopped to observe the light that the Seven Magic Mountains were emitting: they overlooked the entire landscape! It was such a beautiful view… all at once, we found ourselves with our noses up between those fluorescent monoliths. We felt shielded, hide behind those big rocks, like we were alone, even if we weren’t!
The Seven Magic Mountains was supposed to be displayed only for two years but, since it was a huge success, the exposition has been extended until December 2018; Hopefully the exhibit will stay for many years in the future. Fingers crossed! it should really become a must stop along the American road trips!
