Next Waterfront Park Art Installation To Open In Late March

ALEXANDRIA, VA — The next public art installation at Alexandria's Waterfront Park is planned to open in late March.

The "I Love You" installation from Roberto Behar and Rosario Marquardt of R&R Studios is the fourth installation in the annual public art series at Waterfront Park. It will be open from March 25 through November 2022 from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily at 1 Prince Street, Alexandria.

The installation will feature a 15-foot-tall "I Love You" sign in neon pink. Spectators can view the sign from a hand-painted ground mural of a pink and white carpet.

The artists sought to bring community building to public art with their installation.

"‘I Love You’ provides physical evidence of the possibility of the fantastic as part of everyday life," said R&R Studios via a city news release. "It is an instant landmark that brings people together with a simultaneously universal and personal message."

Behar and Marquardt are a husband and wife duo from Argentina who are now architects. Their Miami-based R&R Studios has created other public art at locations like the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale; Valby Square and Town Center in Copenhagen, Denmark; Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, Colorado; Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires in Argentina and more.

R&R Studios was selected to create the artwork in Alexandria by a community task force with approval from the Alexandria Commission for the Arts. Installation for the "I Love You" public art will begin Wednesday. Other regional artists will collaborate for public space activations in response to “I Love You” later in 2022.

Past public art installations in Waterfront Park have included Mark Reigelman’s “Groundswell” in 2021, Olalekan Jeyifous’ “Wrought, Knit, Labors, Legacies” in 2020 and SOFTlab’s “Mirror Mirror” in 2019.