Pictures from Desert X 2025, the art show set in the Coachella Valley Desert

In California’s Coachella Valley, home since 1999 to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the fifth edition of the renowned international site-specific contemporary art exhibition Desert X has started, promoting a meaningful activation of the desert landscape to address pressing ecological, cultural, and existential issues of global concern.

This edition, curated by Artistic Director Neville Wakefield and Co-Curator Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas, will revolve around themes strongly tied to the desert’s evolution over time, such as the anthropogenic effects on the land, colonial power asymmetries, and the redefinition of wilderness: “Desert X reveals the landscape of the Coachella Valley as a canvas of both real and imagined stories”, said Garcia-Maestas, “narrating tales of displacement, sovereignty, and adaptation layered over visible traces of time”.

Not surprisingly, architecture, one of the most evident physical manifestations of human activity, has been embraced by many of the participating artists as a means to reflect on the evolution of these harsh yet resilient landscapes, rich in ancestral wisdom and layered narratives. The eleven selected participants are prominent figures of the international art scene from Asia, Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East: Sanford Biggers, José Dávila, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Raphael Hefti, Kimsooja, Kapwani Kiwanga, Sarah Meyohas, Ronald Rael, Alison Saar, Muhannad Shono and Agnes Denes, whose The Living Pyramid is already on view at the Sunnylands Center & Gardens in Rancho Mirage.

Exhibition: Desert X 2025 Curated by: Neville Wakefield e Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas Location: Coachella Valley, California, USA Dates: from 8th March 2025 to 11th May 2025