The rendering up top shows the sort of scene that visitors can expect if they wander into the 1920’s leaking-water-reservoir-turned-public-art-space buried alongside Buffalo Bayou after December 10th (and before next June): Venezuelan artist Magdalena Fernández’s 2iPM009 projection, adapted from flat-walled origins to fill the 2-acre space (and going by the name Rain). As for what they’ll hear — that’d be an accompanying soundtrack of snaps, claps, and other meteorologically-inspired noisemaking from Slovenian choir Pertuum Jazzile. The original piece is part of the Museum of Fine Arts’s permanent collection; the adaptation will be the first temporary art installation in the column-studded space, which opened for tours in May.
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Entry to the cistern will still be free on Thursdays (though you’ll still need a timed reservation), but the price of entry will jump up from $2 to $10 when the installation is up and running (that’s $8 for students, seniors, and kids ages 9 through 17). Reservations can be made online, and the regular historical tour will still be offered for $5 a few times per week; you can also try your luck with that reverse periscope that peers into the space.
- Make a Reservation [Buffalo Bayou Partnership]
- 2iPM009 [Museum of Fine Arts Houston]
- Previously on Swamplot: Buffalo Bayou;s Cistern Opens Friday But You Can Peek In Right Now via Reverse Periscope; The How and Why of Turning the Cistern Buried Along Buffalo Bayou Into a Split Level Public Bath House; Now Hiring Tour Guides for That Abandoned 1927 Cistern Buried Along Buffalo Bayou; Buffalo Bayou’s Abandoned Basement Now Ready To Be the Subject of Your Experiments; Flying Underground: Buffalo Bayou’s Abandoned Basement Skeleton in Creepy 3D!; Using Pictures To Picture Uses for Buffalo Bayou’s Basement, Poking Around in Buffalo Bayou’s Abandoned Basement
Images: Jean C. Giallorenzo (rendering of Rain: Magdalena Fernández at the Houston Cistern); Swamplot inbox (photo)