ICA LA and Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND) have partnered to commission and work with artists veronique d’entremont and Julia Bogany, Megan Dorame, iris yirei hu to create original public art projects and public programs within the Los Angeles State Historic Park for Art Rise, part of the WE RISE initiative, the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH)’s month-long series of free community programs, events and experiences highlighting the healing powers of art and connection during Mental Health Awareness Month in May

Los Angeles State Historic Park is located on a site with a syncretic history of its own. It was once an indigenous pueblo and trading site for the Tataviam, Chumash, and Tongva people, a Spanish settlement, and over the last two centuries the surrounding neighborhood has been a cultural center for Chinese, Mexican and Italian communities. On the street behind d’entremont’s installation sits St. Peter’s Italian Church, one of few remaining relics of Los Angeles’s Little Italy, where a now-aging Italian spiritual community hold processions and feasts honoring certain saints.

Pakook koy Peshaax (The Sun Enters the Earth and Leaves the Earth) is presented in loving memory of Julia Bogany, whose legacy lives on in the hearts of the Tongva community and beyond.