Aspen Art Museum delays Gaetano Pesce outdoor installation

The Aspen Art Museum has delayed the installation of Gaetano Pesce’s “My Dear Mountains,” which was to sheath the museum facade and had been slated to open Thursday evening.

“We have had a bit of a delay with the project and we’re hoping that (opening) dates are just being pushed for a couple of weeks,” museum director Nicola Lees said Wednesday.

Technical challenges arose this week during installation, Lees said.

A portion of the installation was affixed to the museum exterior for part of the day on Monday, when a portion of Hyman Avenue was also closed for installation.

The envisioned work had been described as an inflated vinyl and nylon shroud with LED lights depicting a sun setting over mountains. The imagery was shared in illustrated renderings with the Aspen City Council in September, when the board unanimously approved allowing the outdoor installation.

The museum will still open this week the indoor portion of Pesce’s show, which includes 25 polyurethane resin and felt works and mountain-shaped vases, some of which the museum will sell at the conclusion of the exhibition in October to support museum programming.

The museum will also open the group video exhibition “Mountain/Time“ this week, which will fill all three levels of gallery space at the museum with immersive video installations from 12 artists. ”Mountain/Time“ and the indoor portion of “My Dear Mountains” will open Thursday evening for museum members and Friday for the general public.

Lees said the museum now plans to host a second opening reception for the outdoor Pesce installation when they are able to execute it.

“We just want to make sure we realize Pesce’s vision,” she said. “It’s quite an ambitious project.”

Pesce, 82, is a world-renowned Italian architect and designer who reportedly has had an abiding love for Aspen extending back to his 1971 visit here for the International Design Conference. The project is funded in part by the Italian Ministry of Culture and was hailed by council members and local artists as a historic moment for art in Aspen.

“I think our town and myself would be honored to have it, and I think we should invite our Italian sister city’s delegation to come over while it’s up next summer,” Councilwoman Rachel Richards said in a September 2021 meeting.

atravers@aspentimes.com