The J.Paul The Getty Museum has kicked off the event PST ART: Art and science collide event series last Sunday, September 15, featuring a fiery collaboration with Chinese pyrotechnics artist Cai Guo-Qiang at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Falling debris from the fireworks struck several attendees during this event also caused a commotion around the University of Southern California (USC) campus and surrounding neighborhoods.
More than 4,000 guests attended the free fireworks show, which started around 6.20pm and lasted between 20 and 30 minutes and unfolded in five acts that continually escalated into explosive extravagance. The Art newspaper reported that several attendees were struck by stony byproducts from the fireworks that rained down on the crowd, and some of the injured required first aid.
“Unfortunately, pieces of debris fell on some people,” Getty spokesperson Alexandria Sivak told the newspaper Art newspaperrecognizing that an undisclosed number of people required first aid. “Of course this is disturbing to us, and we have expressed our concerns to the people whose contact details we have.”
Sivak declined to comment further on the matter Hyperallergicand Cai Guo-Qiang’s studio did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Outside the venue, loud, crackling booms and the billowing blanket of smoke rising from the Colosseum left many unaware of the details of the event. To ask And videos poured out on social media from USC students wondering if their lives were in danger and other Angelenos worried about bombings.
Interviewed by CBS/KCAL Newsseveral USC students told them they thought they would have to evacuate campus and immediately reported to their friends. A local resident said she thought bombs had gone off. Arts journalist Carol Cheh confirmed their concerns. “Look what happened in Lebanon,” she told the newspaper with reference to recent coordinated explosions of tampered personal devices killing dozens of people and injuring thousands.
The Getty acknowledged the shocked reactions and reactions and issued a public statement saying it was aware and sorry for its role in alarming locals with the fireworks, but noted that “the Colosseum followed its normal process for events held at the stadium and informed municipal partners. ”
