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Imperial Valley (cultivated run-off)
by Lukas Marxt
2018, 13’58’’
Presented at lo Schermo dell’Arte 2018
Courtesy the artist
The Imperial Valley is one of the most important regions for industrial agriculture in California. The runoff from its irrigation system flows through pipes, pumps, and canals into the Salton Sea, an artificial lake now on the verge of ecological and economic disaster.
In Imperial Valley (cultivated run-off), Lukas Marxt addresses this issue through aerial footage of an irrigation canal cutting through a desert landscape. A drone camera follows the entire length of the canal and then flies over the landscapes of the Imperial Valley from the same perspective.
Though man-made, it is no longer a place for people—neither ontologically nor in reality.
Lukas Marxt (1983, Austria / Germania) studied Geography and Environmental Science and in 2004 he switched to audio visual studies at the Art University in Linz. From 2007 to 2008 Marxt attended the Faculdade de Belas Artes de Lisboa at the Institut Arte Multimédia. In 2009 Marxt continued with post graduate studies at the Art University in Cologne and HGB Leipzig. In 2017 he spent a 6-months residency in South California, supported by Stiftung Kunstfonds, Kunststiftung NRW, and the Ministerium für Familie, Kinder, Jugend, Kultur und Sport des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, where Marxt was researching the ecological and socio-political structures surrounding the Salton Sea. Imperial Valley (cultivated run-off) is the outcome of this stay. Marxt is the recipient of several fellowships and artist grants, including STARTStipendium for Video und Meida Art from the BKA, Vienna; Forum Stipendium, Linz; Diagonale Preis Innovatives Kino for his work High Tide.