Somewhere in Between: Los Angeles

August 11, 2013 – January 5, 2014

In this video installation, Los Angeles artist Bia Gayotto investigates how people respond to navigating and inhabiting two or more places and cultures. Through an open call, she invited Los Angeles-area residents living along Route 66 who identify as bi- or multicultural to participate in an interview and video shoot that examines life in fourteen neighborhoods along the route from Pasadena to Santa Monica, including Chinatown, Little Armenia, Echo Park, and Thai Town.Somewhere in Between: Los Angeles is the third iteration in a series that previously centered on Silicon Valley and Chicago. The questions Gayotto asked of the participants were designed to stimulate a dialogue reflecting the pluralities of place, identity, and belonging. By juxtaposing cityscapes, architecture, and domestic settings with images of the participants performing simple, everyday actions and a soundtrack that consists of abstract music and ambient sound, Gayotto explores the experiences of those who live in an intercultural space and offers a broader, multilayered portrait of the greater Los Angeles area.

This exhibition is made possible in part by the Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division, and is supported by the Board of Directors of the Pasadena Museum of California Art. Bia Gayotto is a recipient of an ARC Grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation.

Bia Gayotto, still from Somewhere in Between: Los Angeles, 2013. Two-screen video installation with sound. TRT 20 min. Courtesy of the Artist.