MOCA Gala 2022 | Galactic Babies Bright Night at the Museum

“You are the galactic babies. Tonight we are one family. And this is now our collective dining room,” Pipilotti Rist declared to the 600 patrons and friends of MOCA who sparked in the gala’s vibrant ‘Colorful Cocktail’ theme. She continued by expressing her strong affection for the metropolis. “L.A. MOCA is a place I now find home. I am filled with joy that many artists have found a home here, and many artists will find a home here.” After living briefly in L.A. around 20 years ago, the Swiss artist returned in 2019 to prepare to create Big Heartedness, Be My Neighbor (2021) an immersive, interactive space of fantasy and wonder akin to stepping inside a huge kaleidoscope. Rist explained that installation is her way of showing “how we can live together without fences.” It was therefore apt that the shimmering finissage of her first major West Coast retrospective coincided with the return of the MOCA gala to the social calendar, concluding two years of isolation and uncertainty in the global art world. Or as Pipi symbolically described it, “the phoenix out of the ashes.”

Wearing bright and breezy pink florals and purple lipstick, Pipilotti had a special request for the already buzzing chamber. “It’s a long wish I have deep inside, that we together would hum. That everyone finds their personal tones, their individual inner ‘own’ sounds. We have to be loud humming. Louder than the air-conditioning. Then the ceiling will lift!” And voila, it was done: as she roamed the room, there emerged a beautiful dis-harmony as guests collectively brought the new work, “Humming Neighbours,”  (2022) to aural life.

Johanna Burton, new Maurice Marciano Director of MOCA, inaugurated her appointment with a moving speech and announcements of the upcoming season’s programming, which will include exhibitions from Judith F. Baca, Garrett Bradley, and Tala Madani. Performer of the evening Chance the Rapper also took his chance to get some love from Keanu Reeves, a stalwart MOCA supporter in attendance with his partner, artist Alexandra Grant.

Since 1979, MOCA has upped the contemporary art game in L.A. A uniquely artist-founded museum, artists present at the 2022 gala included Henry Taylor, Doug Aitken, Paul McCarthy, Kelly Akashi, Martine Syms, Mary Weatherford Mark Grotjahn, and Alex Israel; many stayed on to boogie and sip espresso martinis at the post-dinner dance party. Pipi too.