Large-scale installation by UCLA Arts alumni invites Coachella festivalgoers to slow down and look closely

A four-story "tower" of geometric boxes designed by UCLA Arts alumni is among the large-scale installations festivalgoers can enjoy viewing at this year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

"The piece looks back at the audience," said Benjamin Freyinger of "Visage Brut," the soaring steel tower he created with Andrew Holder for the festival. "Encountering it is like meeting another festivalgoer or perhaps even an old friend in the desert."

Freyinger and Holder are alumni of the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design, and co-principals of the Los Angeles Design Group, an architectural practice known for merging historical ideas with contemporary urban challenges. Freyinger also serves as a lecturer in the department, which is part of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture.

"Visage Brut" reimagines the logic and mythology of a totem pole through the language of contemporary construction. The tower is composed of modular boxes that are folded, rolled, cut or warped - just short of losing their structural integrity.

"It takes inspiration from Marcel Duchamp's conceptual, anti-aesthetic 'readymades' to the Art Brut movement, often exploring themes of faces," said Freyinger.

Developed in collaboration with software-assisted steel fabricator STUD-IO Construction, "Visage Brut" transforms industrial material typically used in retail construction into an expressive tower.

This past weekend, over 125,000 music lovers flocked to the desert for the festival. Since 2016, Coachella has expanded the scope and scale of its arts offerings, bringing together artists and designers who offer new vantage points from which to experience the festival.

With one more weekend to go, festivalgoers are invited to slow down and look closely at "Visage Brut," taking in its intricate surfaces and shifting forms as day turns to dusk in the valley.

Interview with Benjamin Freyinger: