Bass Coast set to host B.C.'s biggest festival art exhibition with 60 awe-inspiring installations
The 15th annual electronic-music and art festival is an outdoor gallery, with dance and movement
Shutter Buggy is a mobile photo booth in the shape of an antique camera modelled after a 1940s camera.
DEEPLY ROOTED IN rave culture, Bass Coast Electronic Music and Art Festival draws some 6,500 attendees each year. The 15th edition takes place July 7 to 10 outside the city of Merritt. This year, organizers are inviting people to “bloom” with its 2023 theme, AVANT GARDEN.
Through its art grant program, Bass Coast has invested $200,000 to date in installations, commissioning hundreds of artists to showcase their work. Most artworks are constructed on the festival grounds and often serve as meeting points to gather with friends.
“The Bass Coast Art Grant program has contributed to over 1,000 art installations since its inception in 2008, making it the largest program of its kind in Canada,” explains Bass Coast’s art grant manager Scott Phelan. “The program poses an incredibly unique opportunity for artists to showcase bold ideas to a massive and highly engaged audience at a world-class event. The program has grown to become a deserving focal point of art and innovation in British Columbia.”
Bass Coast has been curating audience experiences for 15 years, combining visual and auditory sensations surrounded by the landscape of the Nicola Valley. Nestled along the Coldwater River, this picturesque setting embraces the harmonious convergence of nature's elements: the flowing river, the expansive sky, and the serene land.
Dissolving barriers between artist and audience is an important element of the Bass Coast experience. Under the guidance of artistic director Liz Thompson, the festival has reimagined its art installation and live-art program with a strong focus on interactivity. Each art piece is created based on participant input, ensuring fest-goers can engage with the majority of installations.
This year's festival features 60 installations ranging from an AI-infused table-top art generator to a life-sized rocket ship crashing into an alien world. These artworks will not be found in any typical gallery, but instead push convention out the window and into the night sky.
Here is a sneak peek at three art installations at Bass Coast this year:
The Cube
The Cube 2.0 by Big Art
With the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) disrupting the art world, The Cube 2.0 by Big Art is a timely conceptional installation that poses epistemological questions: What is real? How do we know? What is value? In the festival spirit of exploring, attendees are invited to interact and engage with The Cube 2.0 to find out more. The piece is 18 feet tall, 10 feet wide and 10 feet deep.
From fire-shooting portals to code-talking cubes from another dimension, Big Art designs, builds, and promotes interactive, and immersive, works of wonder.
The Shutterbuggy
The Shutterbuggy by TheEgg Arts Society
The Shutterbuggy is a mobile photo booth in the shape of an antique camera modeled after a 1940s camera. Visitors can climb inside to take photos with friends and get a souvenir printout.
Peter Blitz is the founder of TheEgg Arts Society, a registered charity providing interactive art education and supporting artists in the Vancouver area.
Cosmic Nexus
Cosmic Nexus by Ken Hacke
Cosmic Nexus is an interactive installation that mesmerizes viewers with its interplay of light, sacred geometry, and personal expression. Participants create their own captivating light patterns on a geometric shape theorized to be one of the fundamental building blocks of the universe.
Ken Hacke is inspired by the intersections of art, science, and spirituality. With a deep passion for illuminating the mysteries of the universe, Hacke has crafted this immersive installation to ignite curiosity and spark conversations.
In previous years, he has exhibited the lit-up sculptures called “Forest Guides”, with each piece being a handcrafted work designed to look like ice that glows from within. They’re created in a low poly style with enough detail to form recognizable shapes, while allowing your imagination to fill in the details.
All 60 art installations being exhibited this year are here.
Past art installations include Cayley Bourdon’s Robots Are the Future, which allows participants to make it speak; the The Sandbox Lounge by art collective The Sandbox Lounge, which has attendees participating in painting the canvas with their moving bodies; and The Tunnel by Big Art, a series of light and sound structures that acts as a portal you pass through.
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