Mercedes-Benz Transmission LA: AV Club at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA

 

 

The Mercedes-Benz Transmission LA: AV Club curated by Mike D (of Beasties Boys fame) opened last Friday at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Downtown Los Angeles. The 3-week exhibition in Little Tokyo is free and is sponsored by Mercedes-Benz. It features art, music, food, coffee, book and some could say fashion. Sitting outside, I enjoyed Kogi Truck in their colorful outdoor “restaurant.” Roy Choi, founder of Kogi Truck, explained the restaurant was open on all sides, inviting people to hang out any way they wish.

Every day Kogi Truck serves, there will be one or two special plates in addition to the full Kogi Truck menu. Chef Roy explained they’ll load up the truck with ingredients for the week and cook the way they first did when the truck rolled out- without recipes. He said if you compared the menu to the original, so many of the dishes have changed. I figure this is the way to see an artist really work- picking and choosing the raw ingredients and watching them create something. For instance, the sauce we had on the pupusa may have seemed like any other salsa but it had over 30 ingredients including 5 dried chiles and bread.

 

Last Friday, Chef Roy came up with a fried pupusa topped with a fried egg. The version we had was vegetarian since Mike D is vegetarian. I later tried it with spicy pork. I have to say I didn’t mind the vegetarian one but of course loved the spicy pork. The pickled ramps and green strawberries in the salad absolutely needed to be eaten with the pupusa to get the full effect- like seeing a painting with all the colors of the rainbow.

 

While we were there, I couldn’t help but taste the blackjack quesadilla. It was a special item that Chef Roy came up with when a meet-up group came from Vegas expressly to try Kogi Truck. Filled with pork belly and topped with a green salsa, the smokey, earthy quesadilla may overtake my favorite kimchi quesadilla from the regular menu.

Kogi Truck will be at the exhibit Thursday-Saturday of the exhibit serving dinner and both lunch and dinner on Saturdays.

Music  and DJ nights will take place each Thursday through Saturday evenings. The performances are free to enter and are on a first come, first serve basis with limited capacity.

 

Walking into the exhibit, I noticed a DJ booth set up with a “bar” behind it. All the labels of the bottles had been covered with the generic name of the liquor. I found this genius. To the left was a coffee bar. I didn’t have time to explore it further as I got entranced by all the bright and colorful spinning circles at the next art piece. I will have to go back to check it out again.

 

Then I headed around the back and followed my way down a colorful rabbit hole, escaping to a bright video game world.

 

I took some video of all the bright lights, moving images and absurdly adorable sun. This was probably my favorite piece.

The exhibit runs until May 6.

 

Check out all my photos from the exhibit and Kogi Truck.

The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA

152 N Central Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90013 — (213) 626-6222

 

Mercedes-Benz Transmission LA: AV Club, April 20- May 6

EXHIBITION REGULAR HOURS OF OPERATION

• Sunday: 11am-6pm
• Monday:  Noon-6pm
• Tuesday: Closed
• Wednesday: Noon-10pm
• Thursday: Noon – 10pm
• Friday: Noon – 10pm
• Saturday: 11am – 10pm

Kogi Truck // Roy Choi

• Thursday (April 26^th & May 3^rd) Dinner 6-10pm
• Friday (April 20^th, 27^th & May 4^th) Dinner 6-10pm
• Saturday (April 21^st, 28^th & May 5^th) Lunch 11am-2pm & Dinner 6-10pm

 

Ongoing Upcoming Music/DJ Schedule:

APRIL 26: Jeremy Sole and Egyptian Lover
APRIL 27: Special Guest
APRIL 28: Z-Trip
MAY 3: DJ Harvey and James Murphy
MAY 5: Diplo and Mad Decent Crew

            ** More to be confirmed….

Performances are subject to change. For updates on the music series and other events, visit this site or on Facebook. 

© The Minty 2012