Doug Aitken's Altered Earth Installation at Luma Arles

Doug Aitken's 'Altered Earth' opened at the Grande Halle of Parc des Ateliers in Arles from October 20, 2012, to December 2, 2013. Commissioned by the Luma Foundation (Core Group) as a precursor to Frank Gehry's building, the installation features twelve giant screens arranged in a staggered formation with exceptional sound. Filmed in the Camargue, the work reconfigures landscape through looping, reversed, and repeated close-ups of flamingos, bulls, horses, vegetation, and water shimmer. Viewers' movements create aleatory montages, exploring how spatial mythologies shape American culture. Critic Damien Sausset notes the subtle interplay with regional stereotypes and the raw melody of internal landscape flows.