340 tons, 100 miles, 11 days: ‘Levitated Mass’ is finally rolling to LACMA

You don’t usually associate construction workers with art. At least,

I don’t. But starting Tuesday, there’ll be a team of hardhats deployed to begin the great march of the 340 ton boulder also known as

Levitated Mass to its new home over a giant slit in the earth behind LACMA.

Stalled for months by bureaucratic proceedings to ensure that that march is safe, the eleven-day trek of 106 miles will begin at a quarry in Riverside, which gave birth to the blasted rock that’s becoming an artpiece. Night-time is when transportation will occur; since the route is through such a densely populated area, travel at off-hours is key to making the schlep palatable to the municipalities involved. (Insert corny “journey-as important-as-destination” aphorism here.)

Not to mention that it will have the least impact on traffic: The 200-foot long transporter takes up three highway lanes, and can only go as fast as 8mph. (Now that’s traffic, Kajon Cermak!)

Play along on LACMA’s website, where there’s a classroom activity guide to the giant sculpture, as well as a map of the route if you want to come out and wave hello:

View Levitated Mass in a larger map

To put into perspective how monumental a week the coming one is, aside from the protracted permitting process: the idea for Levitated Mass has been germinating in artist Michael Heizer‘s brain for over 40 years, but he’s been searching nearly that long for just the right slab.

Meet some of the guys who are going to make this possible in this video from the museum’s website: