Institutional Place-Making

Client: THE MOMENTARY
Location: Bentonville, AR
Artists: Alexandre Farto aka Vhils
Service: Development, Production, project management and artist representation.

We teamed up with Portuguese contemporary artist Alexandre Farto, aka Vhils, to expand on his technique of explosive-based works with a new performative edge devised to celebrate the opening of The Momentary, a former industrial cheese factory turned contemporary art space satellite to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. 

“Planck”, developed and produced by Justkids, consisted of a controlled creative explosion whereby an architectural incision of The Momentary’s logo emerged seconds after the blast on the building’s west façade on February 19th, 2020.

On the creative progression the artist stated:

“Walls retain within their layers something of the history and essence of the city which can be symbolically exposed when he carves through them. By employing explosive charges to reveal portraits and compositions, this concept follows its logical conclusion.”

“The process ended up being quite complicated and involved various tests both in Portugal and in the US, as well as some serious coordination with the local authorities and multiple partners for the pyrotechnical side of it. The result was super clean which is really hard to achieve when using explosive charges, and everything went smoothly during the event.”

- Alexandre Farto, Vhils