Travel to Gorgeous Latin American Landscapes on 6th Avenue’s Latest Public Art Installation

Ready to take spontaneous adventure to Latin America for free?! Amidst the high rises of the Avenue of America in Midtown Manhattan are four gorgeous interactive installations of Central and South American natural wonders. PLAYLAB.INC has created four surreal art installations called Fantasy Landscapes. These interactive backdrops allow the public to get immersed into the beautiful natural sites of South and Central America. Furthermore, these real-life locations have been used in movie and television settings, transporting actors, viewers, and now you to Latin America. Let’s take a closer look at each breathtaking natural wonder!

Torres Del Paine is a national park in southern Chilean Patagonia, consisting of jaw-dropping valleys, grand glaciers, gorgeous waterfalls, turquoise rivers, pristine lakes, and majestic mountains. The centerpiece of the park is the Cordillera del Paine, which is an independent mountain formation. 12 million years of glacial erosion that caused the earth’s sedimentary layers to be lifted up and slowly worn down resulted in this jagged massif that is today notable for its intense color differences and textures between the sedimentary rock and granite.

Torres Del Paine at 1120 Sixth Avenue (The Hippodrome)

Lake Atitlán is the deepest lake in Central America and is in the Guatemalan Highlands of the Sierra Madre mountain range. The word “Atitlán” in the Nahuatl language means “between the waters” and literally between the waters there are three volcanoes surrounding the lake, such as San Pedro. The lake has provided a significant food source to the largely indigenous population, such as supporting coffee and avocado orchards and growing crops like corn, onions, chile verde, strawberries, and the pitahaya fruit.

Lake Atitlán at 1177 Sixth Avenue (Silverstein Properties)

The Atacama Desert is an arid desert plateau in South America, west of the Andes Mountains. It covers a 600-mile strip of the Pacific Coast and is in fact one of the driest places in the world. The average rain fall per year in the desert is 15 mm (0.6 in). Most of the desert consists of stony terrain, salt lakes, sand, and felsic lava. Also, as a fun fact, numerous films such as Spy Kids (2001), Quantum of Solace (2008), The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), and Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets (2004) which depicts Mars, have been shot at the Atacama Desert.

Atacama Desert at 1221 Sixth Avenue (Rockefeller Group)

Iguazu Falls are the largest waterfall system in the world and are located on the Brazil and Argentinian border. The Iguazu River actually forms the boundary between the Brazilian state of Paraná and the Argentinian province of Misiones. Most of the river flows through Brazil while most of the falls are on the Argentinian side. The falls divide the river in the upper and lower Iguazu. Legend has it that the Iguazu river is divided because a deity planned to marry a beautiful woman named Naipí, but she fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. Out of fury, the deity split the river which created the waterfalls, sentencing the lovers to an eternal fall.

This is PLAYLAB’s second public art installation along Sixth Avenue for the Avenue of the Americas Association. Last year, the firm installed playful giant inflatable flowers. Remember, the Fantasy Landscapes installations are here until the end of October 2019 so book your ticket now to Latin America!

Don’t feel like flying? Well, you can stay in New York City because there are 15 other New NYC Public Art Installations Not to Miss in August 2019.