Geffen’s Weighty Exhibit

It was no “walk in the park.” That’s Richard Serra’s hindsight assessment of the installation of his exhibit at the Geffen Contemporary of the Museum of Contemporary Art. The steel pieces that make up nine new works by the New York artist weigh as much as 20 tons and stand as high as 13 feet. Some chunks were shipped from their birthplace in Germany to the Port of Los Angeles, then hauled, like the other parts originating in New York, by a convoy of oversized tractor-trailers to Little Tokyo. A mobile gantry met the trucks at the museum loading-dock door--a 20-by-20-foot hole cut just for the occasion--and hydraulically hoisted each piece into place.

John Bowsher, exhibition production manager, says the installations, including “Torqued Ellipses,” are fastened together “minimally--they’re not fragile, but a little precarious in their balance.”

MOCA’s heaviest exhibit ever stays put until Jan. 3, when all but two pieces will go to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, in Spain. One of those now belongs to movie producer Joel Silver, who reportedly will find a spot for it at his new Brentwood home.