ARTFEED — Contemporary Art Intelligence

Desert X 2025 positions large-scale desert installations as emotional service stations in Coachella Valley

festival-fair · 2026-04-20

Desert X 2025 transforms Coachella Valley's landscape with 11 large-scale artistic commissions framed as social and emotional 'service stations' rather than traditional Land art. Alison Saar's Soul Service Station in Desert Hot Springs features a nonfunctional roadside structure with a Black woman statue and audio poetry about overcoming anxiety, created with local students. Jose Dávila's The act of being together presents 12 marble monoliths arranged near a wind farm, while Sarah Meyohas's Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams offers interactive metal discs reflecting patterns onto a white wall in Palm Desert. Muhannad Shono's What Remains uses salt-encrusted fabric draped on posts, and Raphael Hefti's Five things you can't wear on tv stretches polymer fiber across a field to a rocky hill. Sanford Biggers's Unsui (Mirror) installs sequinned cloud signs near a Palm Springs community center in a historically Black neighborhood. The biennial runs from March 8 to May 11, 2025, emphasizing design activism and desert wisdom while some works risk appearing disconnected from their surroundings.

Key facts

  • Desert X 2025 features 11 large-scale artistic commissions in Coachella Valley
  • The biennial runs from March 8 to May 11, 2025
  • Alison Saar's Soul Service Station includes audio poetry and a statue of a Black woman
  • Jose Dávila's The act of being together consists of 12 marble monoliths near a wind farm
  • Sarah Meyohas's Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams allows visitors to reflect patterns with metal discs
  • Muhannad Shono's What Remains uses salt-encrusted fabric on plywood posts
  • Raphael Hefti's Five things you can't wear on tv is a kinetic polymer fiber sculpture
  • Sanford Biggers's Unsui (Mirror) features sequinned cloud signs near a Palm Springs community center

Entities

Artists

  • Alison Saar
  • Jose Dávila
  • Sarah Meyohas
  • Muhannad Shono
  • Raphael Hefti
  • Sanford Biggers
  • Walter De Maria
  • Richard Long
  • Ronald Rael
  • James Wines
  • Elmgreen & Dragset

Institutions

  • Desert X
  • ArtReview
  • Art in America

Locations

  • Coachella Valley
  • Desert Hot Springs
  • California
  • Palm Desert
  • Palm Springs
  • Texas

Sources