Image: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
‘An Evening with Doug Aitken’ is scheduled for Thursday, October 29, 2026, at 6 p.m. in the Floor 1 Phyllis Wattis Theater. The talk will trace Aitken’s practice through six projects that draw heavily on film and video. The program offers a rare look at projects never before shown in San Francisco.
For more than 30 years, Aitken has worked across disciplines and formats spanning film, multichannel video, sound, and performance. His work explores how we build landscapes, inhabit environments, and share experiences. That inquiry includes an understanding of ‘site’ as either the physical space a piece inhabits or an excavation of the living history embedded in a place.
Aitken’s 2007 project ‘Sleepwalkers’ was projected onto the exterior of the Museum of Modern Art. ‘SONG 1’ (2012) wrapped the Hirshhorn Museum. ‘MIRROR’ (2013) turned the Seattle Art Museum into a real-time kaleidoscope.
These projects are examples of Aitken’s large-scale works that transform architecture. The event page describes him as known for immersive large-scale works that transform architecture, including ‘Sleepwalkers,’ ‘SONG 1’ and ‘MIRROR.’
His recent project ‘Lightscape’ is a film-based installation produced with the LA Philharmonic and LA Master Chorale. It debuted at the Marciano Art Foundation in 2025 and was exhibited at The Shed in New York in 2026.
