Beginning on May 18, 2015, and running for four weeks, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Chris Burden: Ode to Santos Dumont, the first museum presentation of Burden’s recently completed monumental performance sculpture. Plans to exhibit the sculpture began last month after LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director Michael Govan saw a test run with Burden and his machinist-collaborator, John Biggs, in a rented hangar at Camarillo Airport.

Sadly, although Burden completed his plans for the exhibition at LACMA, he passed away on May 10, 2015, before the installation opens to the public.

Ode to Santos Dumont is a kinetic airship sculpture inspired by Brazilian-born pioneer aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, widely considered the father of aviation in France. Flying his petrol engine–powered, lighter-than-air dirigible around the Eiffel Tower in 1901 to international notoriety, Santos-Dumont, perhaps more than anyone else, proved the viability of human air travel. Burden's powerful sculptural Ode to Santos Dumont, completed this year after a decade of research and work, is a fitting tribute to Santos Dumont's ingenuity and optimism in the face of naysayers.

The work is also an homage to the persistence of experimentation and failure, which always attends innovation and the development of new points of view.

Burden himself, over his nearly 50-year career, was a relentless innovator of form and ideas. A pioneer of performance art as well as a maker of iconic public sculpture, Burden, like Santos-Dumont, pursued artistic projects that have continuously challenged his physical and mental endurance as well as embraced technical complexity.

Conveyances of all kinds—cars, boats, trains, planes, and even steamrollers—have figured prominently in Burden's artwork, perhaps because, since the beginning of hiscareer, he was always interested in motion and action as an element of sculpture. Zippingthrough and around a fantasy composite city are 1,100 fast-moving toy cars and 13model trains that make up his 2011 Metropolis II at LACMA. His massive 1996 FlyingSteamroller lumbers slowly on a fulcrum in a circular geometry not dissimilar to his Odeto Santos Dumont. Weight is also a common concern of many of Burden's works. The cars of Metropolis II accelerate as the force of gravity plays out on plastic highways. The steamroller is balanced by a counterweight to achieve enough buoyancy to "fly."

"Few artists can claim a body of work as rich, varied, and influential as Chris Burden—from his early, definitive and provocative performances to his large-scale installations and sculptures," said Michael Govan. "Personally, it has been a privilege and pleasure to workwith Chris on the installation of two monumental works at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Urban Light and Metropolis II, two artworks that have become destinations for visitors of all backgrounds.

"Chris has left his mark not only on the art world but also on Los Angeles, his home sincethe late 1960s, thanks to Urban Light. Installed at LACMA's entrance and made from202 historic LA street lamps, it stands as a testament to the lasting power of ChrisBurden's talent, skill, and imagination."

Ode to Santos Dumont temporarily joins two other large-scale sculptures by Chris Burden at LACMA. Urban Light (2008), the monumental outdoor artwork comprising 202 restored cast-iron antique street lamps, is situated on Wilshire Boulevard. The work was made possible by the Gordon Family Foundation’s gift to Transformation: The LACMA Campaign and has quickly become a Los Angeles icon. Metropolis II is a kinetic sculpture modeled after a fast-paced, frenetic modern city in which miniature cars speed through the city at 240 scale miles per hour, a long-term loan from the Nicolas Berggruen Charitable Foundation. For the latter, visit www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/metropolis-ii for viewing times.

Performance Times
Ode to Santos Dumont performs at 15-minute intervals several times a day and is
included in the price of general admission. As with Metropolis II, visitors may access the exhibition space between performances.

Performance times are as follows (no reservation required):
Mondays and Thursdays: noon, 2 pm, 4 pm
Fridays: 1 pm, 3 pm, 5 pm, 7 pm
Saturdays and Sundays: noon, 2 pm, 4 pm, 6 pm 

Location and Contact: 5905 Wilshire Boulevard (at Fairfax Avenue), Los Angeles, CA, 90036 |
323 857-6000 | lacma.org