I want $5,000 to spend! Sure, even if I had this money to spend I would spend it on something else, but still, there is a great line-up for the next Gala of the MOCA (LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art) which will happen on November 13th: Beck, Caetano Veloso and Devendra Banhart. Beck and Devendra have collaborated many times together so people should expect them playing together?
Last year, the MOCA had commissioned an Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli to curate the Gala, and he asked Lady Gaga to play a new song using a pink piano decorated with butterflies by Damien Hirst, while wearing a mask made by Vezzoli and a hat made by the architect Frank Gehry! Over the top? Certainly, but what a sight! The piano was then auctioned for $450,000 and there were tons of celebrities like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie who took in a preview of the exhibition ‘Collection: MOCA’s First 30 Years’, a sort of greatest hits of the MOCA. Gwen Stefani, John Legend and Christina Ricci were there too although I am not sure what they did.
It seems these grandiosity is taken down a notch this year, Beck and Devandra are our hometown boys, they still play some small venues like the Echo and there is no way they will reach some Lady Gaga proportions. I doubt they can auction their guitars for the same amount, but call me a music snob, I would take the 2 of them (with Caetano Veloso) over any concert of the Fame Monster.
This year’s gala creator is L.A.-based artist Doug Aitken, and the event will combine music, dance and visual arts whilst the current MOCA exhibition, ‘The Artist’s Museum Happening’, is featuring work from 140 artists having contributing to the Los Angeles art scene over the past 3 decades. Aitken has described the happening as a ‘cultural ambush’ of music and choreography ‘that will attempt to break the barriers of the stage and empower the evening through the arts.’
According to the LA Times, the gala will cost you $5,000 or $10,000 per person, or $25,000, $50,000 or $100,000 for a table for 10!