Kinetic Artist and Domino Expert Build a “City” With 240,000 Wooden Planks

Kinetic Artist and Domino Expert Build a “City” With 240,000 Wooden Planks Ver esta publicación en Instagram Una publicación compartida por Lily Hevesh / Hevesh5 (@hevesh5) Building soaring structures with dominoes just to topple them over is a form of ephemeral art. And similar to land art, it is designed to be temporary. It all takes a lot of detailed calculation, careful design, and cautious […] READ: Kinetic Artist and Domino Expert Build a “City” With 240,000 Wooden Planks

Art Oct 3, 2025 0 17 Add to Reading List

Kinetic Artist and Domino Expert Build a “City” With 240,000 Wooden Planks

Ver esta publicación en Instagram

Una publicación compartida por Lily Hevesh / Hevesh5 (@hevesh5)

Building soaring structures with dominoes just to topple them over is a form of ephemeral art. And similar to land art, it is designed to be temporary. It all takes a lot of detailed calculation, careful design, and cautious building with the ultimate goal for it to all come down in a matter of seconds, hopefully as planned. Few creatives have mastered this art form, building their entire careers around this craft. Domino expert Lily Hevesh and kinetic artist Raffaele Salvoldi are two of them. But rather than seeing each other as rivals, they decided to team up for a record-breaking project.

The impermanent installation, titled Imaginary City, was made up of 240,000 wooden planks. It was designed by Salvoldi, and brought to life by him, Hevesh, and six other expert builders over the course of 12 days. The exemplary effort produced a series of towers with ornate domes and intricate facades. With everything in place, its controlled destruction resulted in what Hevesh described as “one of the most breathtaking topples I’ve ever witnessed!” It has also broken the record for the most planks set up and toppled in a single project, according to the builders.

Imaginary City is a reflection of the expertise of both artists. Salvoldi only works with natural or recycled materials in his works, such as wood and stone, allowing them to have a longer life by reusing them in new artworks. “In the case of wood, each exhibition ends with a large public event, where the structure is either demolished directly by the audience or brought down through a domino effect,” reads his artist statement. Meanwhile, Hevesh has a more playful approach, experimenting with colors to create hypnotic topples, as we previously saw in her Destination Domino project at Washington’s National Building Museum.

“Collaboration will always be better than competition!” Salvoldi wrote about their joint project. “The Imaginary City is an ephemeral kinetic art installation that reminds us how impermanent is beauty and how sometimes a little meaningless gesture can have devastating consequences.” The artist also expressed his wish to collaborate with Hevesh and their fellow builders again, describing them as a “dream team.”

You can watch Havash’s video about the toppling of the Imaginary City below. To stay up to date with these artists, you can follow Lily Hevesh on YouTube and Raffaele Salvoldi on Instagram.