Lyrics To Life in DTLA Turns Your Fave Songs Into Insta-Bait Art Installations

Photos by Dara Danenberg

Lyrics to Life, a dreamy pop-up exhibition running March 2 through 5 in Downtown L.A.'s Arts District, is most likely flooding your feed and Stories this weekend.

The already-sold out interactive art installation is a collaboration between Dropbox and Genius, meant to channel your favorite song lyrics from modern music icons spanning Nicki Minaj and Notorious B.I.G. to Tame Impala and Radiohead. 

Photos by Dara Danenberg

The Bigger Picture

Lyrics to Life is unabashedly designed with photo-ops and hashtags in mind, encouraging you to sit, lie, and climb on the artwork itself. The ubiquity of experiential marketing ploys like this—sensory overloaded, experiential, immersive, and otherwise Instagram bait—show no signs of slowing down. 

Whether these "made-for-Instagram" exhibits are hurting or helping art is still up for debate. For now, Beyond The Interview can safely report that there's no harm in supporting artists and promoting your own brand at the same time with a quick selfie (or 50 to choose from). 

Artists On Artists

Rapper Aminé designed an exhibition based on his own lyrics to "Turf." 

"From Aminé whose genius shines through his songs and music videos to Nitemind who do spectacular lighting design for Kelela and Dawn Richard, we're excited to collaborate with visual artists and curators who share a deeply personal relationship with music," said Max Kotelchuck, head of experiential at Genius.

Photos by Dara Danenberg

Other visual artists to take lyrics off the page and into real life include Devin Troy Strother and Magnus Sodamin; installation artists Peggy Noland and Mokibaby; sculptor, conceptual filmmaker, and photographer Marina Fini; sculptor and multidisciplinary artist Typoe; and lighting collective Nitemind.

Photos by Dara Danenberg