In 2017, it was widely believed that artists were not only creators of aesthetic objects. They are wizards, wizards, and most importantly, they can solve all the problems we face, both personally and politically. A few weeks ago, the Aspen Museum of Art announced the Air, a decade-long initiative to make Colorado a residence for this particular artist.
Air is in its early stages, but this July kicked off its first global summit for artists and reshapes the “new future path with artists” by debugging performances, artworks and research aims to reshape “the way we are with each other and to cope with collective challenges.” Observers recently caught up with Nicola Lees, director of the Aspen Museum of Art, and caught up with more information about this ambitious plan.
The air feels like a new idea in the museum, and it’s almost like a conversation with an artist. Is this an accurate representation?
While the air equally conveys complex ideas to a wide audience, its conversations, committees and performance plans draw on sublime landscapes but incorporate art’s unique sensory capabilities. Discourse and artwork hybridize in Air’s new model. Therefore, air predicts the importance of process, experimentation and face-to-face experience. AIR is the creation of an environment where participants and the public can think differently as they venture for artists and engage in open conversations, thereby bridging the porous boundaries between disciplines.
Most importantly, air is a brilliant bunch of thoughts, and while most of the movements unfold on the stage, what happens on the edge is equally important. With a breathtaking mountain backdrop, Air offers a rare setting – an environment that encourages reflection, deep conversations and unexpected connections. Conversation participants will reflect the informal, generated communication that shapes the art world during breakfast, hiking or waiting for the start of the program, which is a moment of interpersonal relationships, shared inquiries and spontaneous insights. This invisible layer of knowledge sharing makes the air a crucial complement to the landscape of contemporary cultural discourse, providing a space for intellectual risk adventures and artistic experiments that resonate far beyond its immediate environment.
Air aims to be an artist headed by leaders. Can you solve this idea? Who should follow the artist?
Artists can help us redefine the core of leadership. Through their bizarre conceptions, it is possible for artists to change the way we see the world and relate to each other. They challenge assumptions, undermine the status quo and reimagine what. In today’s rapidly growing, increasingly unpredictable world, we need this kind of thinking more than ever. By investing artists as leaders, the air not only recognizes that they can shape not only cultural dialogue, but also the broader way we understand and navigate society. Who should follow the artist? I would say, anyone interested in new ways of thinking – scientists, policy makers, entrepreneurs, and anyone who is willing to see the world through different lenses.
The initial iteration of the air was some of my favorite artists: Paul Chan, Aria Dean, Alvaro Enrigue, Zoë Hitzig, Glenn Ligon, Maya Lin and Francis Kéré. How did you choose these artists? What do they have in common?
Everyone works at the intersection of disciplines, whether it is art and language, design and ecology, technology and philosophy, etc. They are all deeply involved in questioning systems such as IT history, identity, power structure, and even the definition of life itself. It’s not a theme or aesthetic that binds them together, but a shared commitment to pushing our way of thinking and creating. We hope Air’s first year reflects a wide variety of perspectives and approaches, and this group of artists brings breadth in extraordinary ways.
The first section of programming, “Life No One Knows”, was named from the book by theoretical physicist and astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker, which challenges traditional definitions of life. Can you explain this topic again?
The work of Sara Imari Walker requires us to rethink what we think is “life” and where its boundaries lie, especially in the age of artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and environmental change. We find this idea incredible with what the artist does: expanding our perspective on reality and challenging established definitions. “Life No One Knows” is about seeing the world and our place in the world in a way that goes beyond familiarity. It’s about taking unknowns as a space for generation of art, thought and discovery.
Air’s commissioned artwork has not been announced yet, but can you let me know what it looks like? How is it different from the artwork produced by museums?
Unlike traditional museum exhibitions, Air’s committees are live-responsive and immersive. The artist is invited to interact with Aspen himself, not as a background, but as an integral part of the work. This could mean a device that takes place in the mountains, interacts with the natural environment or unfolds over time (involving local communities). These works will be shaped by Aspen’s unique background, making their experience impossible to replicate elsewhere.
What should artists think about artificial intelligence?
I’m not sure if I can say how artists feel about AI, but I do think they’re trying to cope with the unique position of these developments because they understand creation as something deep human beings but constantly evolving. Some artists use AI as a tool; others criticize it, and many do it at the same time. Like any new technology, its impact will depend on how we interact with it, and artists are the best abilities yet to be known.
Air draws inspiration from the historic Aspen International Design Conference. What was this pleasing discussion that Aspen inspired? high?
Maybe it’s the altitude! But not only that, it is Aspen’s history and unique sense of place. Aspen has always been a destination where people start thinking about different things – it is distant and deep connected, providing loneliness and dialogue. The design conference brought together radical thinkers such as Susan Sontag, Robert Rauschenberg, John Cage and Gaetano Pesce to shape the conversation that still reverberates today. This is Pesce’s first time coming to the United States, and he will return many times to continue creating works inspired by the landscape.
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This is also the place Maya Lin last visited in 1983 – Steve Jobs gave a groundbreaking speech on technology and design. Lin will actually return to Aspen for the first time this summer since that visit, now part of the air. Aspen’s innovative spirit goes beyond art and design, and it is also a hub for technical experiments. In the late 1970s, MIT researchers developed the Aspen movie map here, a pioneering pioneer of virtual reality that allows users to “walk” the streets of Aspen digitally. This combination of avant-garde creativity and technological curiosity has long defined towns, making it a natural incubator for new ways of observing and thinking.
This intelligence and creativity are woven into Aspen’s DNA. With the help of the air, we are continuing this tradition, but with the artists at the center, we explore the realization of the future through the perspective of contemporary art. By interacting with each other outside major cities, I think artists tend to build connections that they might not otherwise have. The inherent adventurous spirit of this valley encourages people to get out of themselves. I look forward to seeing how this dynamic transformation will unfold throughout the field over the next decade due to the air results.
