Roberto Carlos Lange (aka Helado Negro) talks with Diana Nguyen about the evolution of Kite Symphony, life in Marfa during the Pandemic, and how the project has come to evolve.

Kite Symphony is a multimedia collaboration between musician Roberto Carlos Lange, also known as Helado Negro, and visual artist Kristi Sword. The project features a newly commissioned film, outdoor composition and installation, a series of drawings, sculpture, animation, and a special Earth Day performance. Sound is the throughline between these diverse elements of this long-term project. Lange is a musician (widely known as Helado Negro) and Sword is a visual artist, and Kite Symphony is an extension of their collaborative practice where they create work at the intersection of music, performance, and visual art.

To celebrate the 15th year of Prada Marfa, check out the first interview with artists Elmgreen & Dragset since their sculpture since its inauguration in 2003. The duo talks about how Prada Marfa has evolved and taken on a life of its own during its 15 years in West Texas.

Prada Marfa is a site-specific, permanent land art project, commissioned by Art Production Fund and Ballroom Marfa. Modeled after a Prada boutique, the sculpture houses bags and shoes from the luxury brand’s Fall 2005 collection of bags and shoes. The artwork, which never functioned as a place of commerce, is located on a barren stretch of highway one mile west of Valentine, TX.

Over the last 15 years, the sculpture has become an iconic roadside attraction in West Texas, drawing tens of thousands of visitors each year. Prada Marfa was granted museum status in 2014 by the Texas Department of Transportation.

Prada Marfa is Elmgreen & Dragset’s most noted work. It is the perfect encapsulation of the duo’s subversive humor and critical eye towards commercialism and the conventions of the art world.

In this interview, we hear from Carolina Caycedo and David de Rozas on their 2021 exhibition The Blessings of the Mystery. The artists are creating a new film and series of installations rooted in West Texas. The project crystallizes their extended research into the connections and tensions between the cultural, scientific, industrial, and socio-political forces of key locations such as: the McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis, the Amistad Dam on the Rio Grande, and the Permian Basin oil fields.

Graham Reynolds talks with Diana Nguyen about his longstanding relationship with Ballroom Marfa and West Texas through The Marfa Triptych – Three Portraits of West Texas, and tells us about his lastest project with Ballroom, MXTX.

MXTX is a collaborative project, envisioned by composer Graham Reynolds, featuring forty DJ-producers and composers from both sides of the Rio Grande. The project will culminate in an open-source audio sample library, album, and live performance, evolving into an open concept designed for sustained resonance and ongoing cross-border dialogue.