With the Los Angeles Film Festival kicking off later this week (be sure to check back for more coverage from the fest), today we have a teaser trailer for one of the docs that will be making its debut at the fest — “Levitated Mass,” about the land art installation of the same name at the L.A. County Museum of Art.
Levitated Mass, the installation, is just that, a massive rock (it seems inappropriate to even call it a “rock” or a “boulder”… the thing is more like a giant chunk of planet) that rests above an outdoor corridor at LACMA. But the story captured in “Levitated Mass” the film, directed by Doug Pray, is so much more than that, chronicling the journey this piece made from conception by artist Michael Heizer in 1968, and its 10 days being navigated on a football-field sized truck through the streets of LA, causing a local phenomenon as people gathered to catch a glimpse of the rock on its way. It certainly looks like a film that uses this piece to interrogate those disparities between high art and mass culture, and what the role of art can be in everyday life.
Here’s the official synopsis and check out the exclusive teaser trailer below. “Levitated Mass” will screen on Thursday, June 20th at the Leo S. Bing theater at LACMA at 7:30 PM.
LEVITATED MASS is the story of a rock star; the artist behind the sensation; a $10 million, 22-city tour; and the international media storm that ensued–but not in the way you might expect. Prominently displayed outside the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, renowned and reclusive land artist Michael Heizer’s “Levitated Mass” gained worldwide recognition during its installation in 2012. Over the course of 10 nights, a 340-ton solid granite boulder crawled through Southern California neighborhoods on a 294-foot-long, 206-wheeled trailer, drawing hundreds of camera crews and cell phone shooters alike to document its journey. Tens of thousands of people came out to watch the megalith travel through their communities to its final resting place over a 456-foot-long negative space formed by a concrete slot. “Levitated Mass” is one of the only pieces of art in recent history to inspire such a reaction in pop culture, bringing together the art community, public officials and the general population to debate the merits and pitfalls of a giant stone suspended above their heads. The film takes on Heizer’s passion for this piece and masterfully interweaves this influential artist’s biography with the backstory of the art (originally conceptualized in 1968), the dreams of a major museum, and the uniting of a city, examining the perennial question: “What is art?”
