The idea sounds like something a security guard’s nightmares are made of: a skateboarder riding through an art museum, among the walls and pedestals. It began as an art performance conceived by the German artist Johannes Wohnseifer, who invited the skateboarder Mark Gonzales to skate through a gallery. The filmmaker and photographer Cheryl Dunn documented it, and the footage later turned up as a music video for “West Coast,” a song by Coconut Records, the solo project of actor and musician Jason Schwartzman.
The skater
Gonzales, often called “Gonz,” is one of the most influential skateboarders ever. In the 1980s he helped invent modern street skating, treating handrails, stairs and benches as terrain. He is also a painter, poet and illustrator whose work has been shown in galleries. That double life made him the obvious person to bring skateboarding through a museum’s doors.
The musician
Schwartzman, best known for films such as Wes Anderson’s Rushmore, had drummed for the band Phantom Planet before starting Coconut Records. “West Coast” appeared on its 2007 debut album, Nighttiming.
Skateboarding as culture
Since then, skateboarding has moved firmly into the cultural mainstream. Museums have staged exhibitions on skate art and design. Skateboarding made its Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games, held in 2021, and returned in Paris in 2024. The rebellious street activity that cities once tried to ban now has gold medals and museum shows.
The museum video still captures something the Olympics cannot: the sound of wheels on a polished gallery floor, and the strange pleasure of watching art and skating share the same space.
Sources: Mark Gonzales, Wikipedia; Coconut Records, Wikipedia; Skateboarding at the Summer Olympics, Wikipedia.
