Festival Art Highlight

At Coachella 2026, one of the steadiest crowds formed around “Network Operations,” a three-story Dedo Vabo installation packed with hippos running a fake media empire. (presstelegram.com) The piece sits in the festival’s art field at the Empire Polo Club in Indio during Weekend 1, which opened Friday, April 10. Coachella’s official art program says the festival commissions large-scale works that double as landmarks and public space. (coachella.com) Coachella’s artist page says Dedo Vabo is the Los Angeles duo Vanessa Bonet and Derek Doublin, and that they build absurd, technology-heavy works with a cast and crew of about 180 artists, engineers, fabricators and performers. (aeg-fs29.us-central1.gce.aegp.cloud) “Network Operations” is the latest chapter in the duo’s long-running hippo storyline. Coachella’s site links it to their earlier installations “Corporate Headquarters” and “Power Station,” which also put the same hippo world on the polo field. (aeg-fs29.us-central1.gce.aegp.cloud 1) (aeg-fs29.us-central1.gce.aegp.cloud 2) Dedo Vabo describes the new work as a “global, multi-conglomerate telecommunications and broadcast company” and a satire of a media system shaped by telecommunications, data mining and artificial intelligence. The group says the installation is meant to mirror a “content-saturated age” through comedy and overload. (dedovabo.com) Regional coverage filled in the scale. KESQ reported that “Network Operations” stands more than 60 feet tall and is positioned near the main stage, where it drew steady foot traffic on opening day. (kesq.com) The Orange County Register reported on April 10 that the hippos had moved from corporate and space-themed plots into broadcasting, with newspapers, podcasts and radio frequencies folded into the joke. That shift turned the installation into a parody of media concentration, not just a giant character set piece. (ocregister.com) Design publication Dezeen placed “Network Operations” alongside three other major Coachella 2026 installations, noting that Dedo Vabo’s work was separate from the arts program that organized the other three. The outlet described the structure as a lit “command center” that takes over visually after dark. (dezeen.com) That helps explain why festival coverage kept pairing the art field with performance dispatches. At a festival built around headliners and livestreams, one of the most photographed non-stage attractions was a glowing tower of hippos pretending to run the signal. (presstelegram.com) (youtube.com)