{"id":2092370,"date":"2026-08-13T21:41:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T18:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2092370"},"modified":"2026-08-13T21:41:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T18:41:27","slug":"a-video-game-invites-anyone-into-heizers-exclusive-city-land-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2092370","title":{"rendered":"A video game invites anyone into Heizer’s exclusive ‘City’ land art"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/city3_227c5f.png?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\tTulsa, Oklahoma-based digital artist Lily Belmira has made a new, free video game allowing anyone to virtually visit Michael Heizer\u2019s mysterious and radically difficult-to-enter land artwork in the Nevada desert, titled City<\/em>. Only six people a day who are willing to pay the regular admission fee of $150 are permitted to explore City<\/em>, one of the world\u2019s largest artworks, in person. Spanning over a mile and a half, its precise location has been kept secret to some degree since its opening in 2022.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Belmira hopes to offer a virtual way around all that, while deliberately challenging the notion of restricted access to art, in favor of a more democratic and broad-reaching approach.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe told ARTnews<\/em> via email that she made the video game out of \u201ca genuine interest in showing City<\/em> to more people.\u201d But it is also a critique of what she calls a \u201cbourgeois scar on the earth,\u201d albeit a \u201cbeautiful\u201d one, in an artist statement. \u201cI didn\u2019t like City<\/em> when I started, and I saw this project as a way to undermine its power,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo that end, players of Belmira\u2019s City by Michael Heizer [Free Version],<\/em> which anyone can try by clicking here, must start behind an intentionally obtrusive no-trespassing fence. An opening further along the fence eventually allows users to wander through a simulation of Heizer\u2019s barren, manicured landscape of paths, mounds, and depressions, where strange, abstract geometric sculptures emerge, appearing equally ancient and futuristic, or alien. Belmira used LIDAR data available online to model City<\/em>\u2019s terrain, as well as Google Maps satellite imagery. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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City by Michael Heizer [Free Version]<\/em> still image, by video artist Lily Belmira. Image courtesy of the artist.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tWhile she feels the video game \u201cis forgiving [Heizer] in some way,\u201d Belmira told ARTnews<\/em> she still wonders: \u201cHow can an artwork that has been seen by so few people have so much power?\u201d She points to City\u2019s<\/em> \u201caura\u201d and role in securing the surrounding land as a national monument by 2015 executive order. \u201cThe game asks if bringing an exclusive artwork down to the level of online art could free the work and its creator from the economic bind that keeps their art from being experienced,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\tDubbed the art-world Atlantis, City<\/em> took some 50 years to make, beginning in the 1970s, and cost $40 million to produce. Like Heizer\u2019s other artworks, often made in remote settings and of epic scope, it has regularly sparked criticism in line with some of Belmira\u2019s views. ARTnews<\/em> senior editor Alex Greenberger said Heizer\u2019s creations \u201cevince a muscular, macho sensibility.\u201d Others argue the artist\u2019s work reaffirms structures of settler colonialism by omitting Indigenous perspectives of the land being used, as Alicia Harris discussed in a 2020 dissertation. <\/p>\n

\n\tAfter virtually strolling through City<\/em> in Belmira\u2019s video model, some of its mysterious puzzle pieces do, gratifyingly, start to come together. After all, cell phones aren\u2019t allowed on the site, and imagery of the City<\/em> is limited. We get a better sense of its scale and form, without ever having to trudge through the unforgiving desert heat. Whether Belmira intended it or not, the enjoyable exercise left me curious to experience more, and perhaps, one day, make it there myself.<\/p>\n

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City by Michael Heizer [Free Version]<\/em> still image, by video artist Lily Belmira. Image courtesy of the artist.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/city3_227c5f.png?w=1024″] Tulsa, Oklahoma-based digital artist Lily Belmira has made a new, free video game allowing anyone to virtually visit Michael Heizer\u2019s mysterious and radically difficult-to-enter land artwork in the Nevada desert, titled City. Only six people a day who are willing to pay the regular admission fee of $150 are permitted to explore […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2092370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2092370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2092370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2092370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2092370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2092370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2092370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}