The work of Dutch artist Theo Jansen will grace the Art Science Museum at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands casino resort until the end of September. In a press release issued on Friday, the property said it would show “Wind Walkers: Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests” at the museum, which is the main venue for cultural displays at Marina Bay Sands (pictured). The space opened in February 2011 and has hosted exhibitions by Leonardo da Vinci, M.C. Escher, Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol and Vincent Van Gogh. With Wind Walkers, the casino owned by the United States-based operator Las Vegas Sands Corp, has scored a first for Southeast Asia; Jansen’s moving sculptures have never before been displayed there.
The exhibition of 13 big, wind-powered machines that move like imaginary animals sees everyday materials blended with a dose of physics to create art. Jansen designed the machines for work on the beaches of the Netherlands, where they were intended to pile up sand to form dunes to protect the coast of the low-lying country from any rise in sea level caused by global climate change. Notable Strandbeests on show in Wind Walkers include Animaris Siamesis, which weighs more than 200kg and has 72 legs to propel it along a beach. The exhibition opened on Saturday.
Marina Bay Sands has convention and exhibition facilities, 2,560 hotel rooms and suites, the rooftop Sands SkyPark, a shopping mall, restaurants, a theatre and a plaza for outdoor events. Just last week, the property announced it would open next year a Marquee-brand nightclub with an indoor Ferris wheel. The nightclub will occupy a space formerly used by one of the two theatres in the casino resort designed to attract live entertainment. Las Vegas Sands reported a 202.7-percent jump in company-wide first quarter profit in April. Group-wide, on U.S. generally accepted accounting principles basis, Las Vegas Sands’ net income for the three months ended March 31 was USS1.46 billion.
The Marina Bay Sands posted adjusted property earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation of US$541 million, up by 48.6 percent. Casino revenue at Marina Bay Sands was up by 32.5 percent year-on-year to US$652 million in the three months to March 30.
