The Westside installation, on display in the main gallery of Building Bridges Art Exchange offered visitors an opportunity to grieve by contemplating a wall of roses while listening to music by celebrated Los Angeles based composer Yuval Ron and taking solace in a meditative induction created by Rose River Memorial co-founder Marcos Lutyens.

 

The installation contained thousands of roses, made by volunteers across the country, remembering each westside death from Malibu south to El Segundo, and east to La Cienega Boulevard. This built on an inaugural installation at Self Help Graphics that memorialized those lost to COVID-19 on the Eastside.

 

“For this westside memorial, our goal is to include as many locally handmade roses as possible, to deeply engage the community with this act of collective grief,” said Rose River memorial co-founder Marcos Lutyens. “People who make roses tell us that it brings them great comfort and peace in these difficult days. Family members who are grieving are comforted by this idea of strangers recognizing and remembering the enormity of this pandemic in such a beautiful way.”

 

Building Bridges Art Exchange and Rose River Memorial asked locals to help build the memorial. Roses were made with felt and glue following instructions that were available in English and Spanish. Thanks to generous donations from Building Bridges Art Exchange board members rose making kits were available for free.

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“At Building Bridges we feel very honored to have the possibility to bring Rose River Installation at Bergamot Station and have a collective grieving for the community of Santa Monica” said Marisa Caichiolo, Founder and Director of Building Bridges Art Exchange. “Currently as a product of the Covid-19 Pandemic, the world population is experiencing a series of losses at different levels that has caused a collective sadness, grieving is needed  and will have to be processed little by little as soon as this confinement ends. The installation will be a sacred space where people can connect with their own feelings and senses to experience their own grieving, individually or in a collective way (with families and friends).”

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On December 31, 2020, a very special end of the year ceremony with @roserivermemorial was lead by Marcos Lutyens. As the sun set over the ocean on such a challenging year, the artist presented a handcrafted art installation memorial to COVID-19 victims, in response to pandemic deaths across the nation. For this installation, Marcos received 1600 roses from our partner: Kiwanis Division 35. A ritual was streamed live from the ocean on the California coast, together with Tina Calderon sharing blessings and a Tongva land acknowledgment , thoughts, comments, and special words by Kristin Urquiza of @markedbycovid and Carolyn Freyer-Jones of @thefridayminute. Additional words by representatives of Kiwanis Division 35: Mary ‘Happy’ Price and Tina Carey. The event was hosted by Marisa Caichiolo.

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The final installation was be placed outdoors at the Bergamot Station Arts Center Parking lot on March 25th. The unveiling was live streamed for the public. In attendance was Santa Monica Cultural Affairs Manager, Shannon Daut, Rose River Memorial’s creator, Marcos Lutyens, Building Bridges Art Exchange’s Director, Marisa Caichiolo, and the rest of the participant Bergamot Station galleries.

 

For this installation we received roses from our partner school Untitled No. 1, who's mission is to serve our community by offering families and children a joyous and engaging preschool experience, replete with opportunities to learn from nature and from one another. Because children learn best in diverse settings, Untitled No. 1 admits families evenly spread across income levels and provides scholarships to achieve this balance.

 

The westside installation at Building Bridges Art Exchange brings Rose River Memorial a step closer to the eventual national memorial in Washington D.C.