Artist Installs Magical Fluorescent Mountains in the Las Vegas Desert

The Las Vegas strip is filled with neon lights and massive hotels, surrounded by the dry, mountainous landscape of the Mojave Desert. According to The Art Newspaper, elements of the two worlds will soon meet in a new public art installation by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone.

Titled Seven Magic Mountains, the installation features brightly colored limestone boulders stacked into towers that stand up to 35 feet high and weigh as much 50,000 pounds. But as Rondinone told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the exhibition's huge size "doesn't matter," because it still pales in comparison to the gigantic natural formations surrounding it.

The project, made possible by the Art Production Fund and Nevada Museum of Art, has been five years and over $3 million in the making, according to Rondinone, and will remain in the desert for at least two years. He explained to the Review-Journal that his work is a continuation of the land art movement that began in the 1960s. "In the past, land art has been camouflaging art," he said. "By giving a layer of color, we are bringing together the pop art movement and land art."

Visitors to the installation have been sharing photos of the towers on social media, but the site does not officially open to the public until Wednesday, May 11.