The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

The boom of immersive exhibitions: have we got bored of museums?

2022-12-19T11:12:27.877Z


Virtual reality, video games and interaction are the attractions of a new way of consuming art where the protagonist is the citizen


Here you come to see paintings more than three meters high, to walk through them, to be explained in

podcast

format with dramatic music by a communication expert, to see them with 3D glasses.

And in the middle of the tour of the

Dalí Challenge

exhibition , being inside one of his paintings thanks to digital insertion.

You have to stand on a mark on the ground and, when the countdown on the screen ends, the recording begins.

In a few seconds you have to try to catch one of Dalí's icons: melted clocks, tigers, crutches... When leaving, they give you a QR code to take the video as a souvenir.

Welcome to this new way of consuming art: in interactive exhibitions the protagonist is the citizen.

00:16

Dalí immersive exhibition

This editor letting herself be carried away by Dalí's surrealism in the activity of digital insertion.

Desafío Dalí

, in Space 5.1 of Ifema, in Madrid, 2,000 square meters prepared for this type of activity in which technology takes on almost the same role as the artist in question, tries to advance the label of immersive exhibition to be

cultural sense

.

“Technology is not the protagonist”, corrects Miguel de la Ossa, co-founder of ArtDidaktik, the company that created this exhibition, “it is a tool that facilitates learning in a pleasant way”.

Santiago Ruiz, executive producer, adds: “An immersive is based on

micromapping

, there is only a part here.

This is

edutainment

, we are committed to cultural dissemination”.

Immersive,

cultural sense, edutainment, micromapping

... All these Anglicisms have crept into the art sector in the last five years, when it is estimated that the rise of a type of exhibition began in which contemplation is no longer enough.

In these samples there are no original works.

In the absence of the great claim of traditional museums, the private companies that devise these projects have found in technology the perfect bait to capture the attention and curiosity of citizens who, in the case of Spain, prefer to go to the movies or to a concert. rather than an exhibition, according to data from the latest survey on cultural consumption from the INE (National Institute of Statistics).

The virtual reality zone of the exhibition 'Desafío Dalí'.

Elena Martrod

Without being able to show the original works, these exhibitions began their commitment with giant-size reproductions of the paintings in light boxes and with 3D projections on walls and floors, with music or a story in the background.

This is

micromapping

, the system that was directly linked to the immersive exhibition label.

In

Tutankhamun, the immersive exhibition

, in the MAD space.

Madrid Artes Digitales, in El Matadero, the bet is redoubled in a projection room of 1,200 square meters in which for about 20 minutes the pharaoh tells his story, while the images follow one another, the beetles pass under the feet, the music and light envelop.

But, after the flood of exhibitions of this type in the last year (some examples are worth mentioning, such as those of Frida Kahlo, Goya, Klimt, a space dedicated to

Las meninas

by Velázquez, Tim Burton...),

micromapping

has fallen short.

"It is the nucleus from which other activities develop," says Nacho Ares, an Egyptologist and curator of the Tutankhamun exhibit, in which there is a replica of the pharaoh's gold coffin and a life-size reproduction of the tomb that is actually a kind of video game.

Upon entering this labyrinth of rooms, they give you a tablet to see in augmented reality what the place where Tutankhamen was buried was like.

You have to pass tests: touch chests, move a dagger, find the only mask that is different... and you earn points.

The goal is to get around the curse.

A boy and a girl walk through the life-size reproduction of Tutankhamen's tomb with some tablets. JAVIER NAVAL

When leaving, a ranking

is shown on a screen

with the names and the points obtained.

Last Thursday, a group of children between 8 and 10 years old, on a school visit, did not lose sight of the list to make sure that nobody beat them.

“The gods have told me that I am a

crack

”, one of his friends said, while others lined up at the photo booth that turns the visitor into a pharaoh.

It is 2022, the photo is taken home on the mobile and, as posters both in the exhibition on Ancient Egypt and in the Dalí exhibition remind us, we must not forget to share it on social networks, so that the whole world finds out.

The mobile is almost a requirement to make the visit, it is not banned as in museums.

“The idea of ​​traditional museums has been reversed.

That is the key to success”, continues Ares, who defends that in an exhibition like that of Tutankhamun the aim is not to “understand the museum story”, but rather “to arouse curiosity, make it fun, enjoy what you see”.

The Egyptologist argues that this is the way in which he would have liked this story to be told to him when he was a child: “In a crumbled, chewed, direct and plain way.

Everything is more informative, closer to popular culture and the general public”.

Both Ares and those responsible for the Dalí exhibition assure that they have the endorsement of experts in archeology and art who, they say, have seen both initiatives.

In addition to having the permits or approval of the institutions that house the pieces of the authors or themes that are going to be exhibited.

Only in that of the surrealist painter you can see 150 works in digital format that are in more than 20 museums and private collections around the world.

"That's why we call it the impossible exposure," says Ruiz.

Traditional or interactive

The Reina Sofía Museum is one of those institutions with Dalí's work.

Mabel Tapia, deputy artistic director of the museum of contemporary art, believes that this type of interactive initiatives can "cohabit" with the exhibitions of traditional institutions.

“The relationship with the object work produced by an artist is by no means the same as in an immersive experience,” she opines.

"These proposals aim to produce a more spectacular effect that works of art do not always have."

From the Museo del Prado, where an exhibition with smells has been organized in the last year, they recall that "museums are places that one goes to on more than one occasion", contrary to what happens with these projects, to which that they consider "useful" to "generate curiosity and interest in going to the museum to discover a unique work".

“Our proposal aspires to be a modest contribution to the evolution of the museum concept in the 21st century.

To be the gateway to the world of art”, concludes Miguel de la Ossa, responsible for the Dalí exhibition.

"We get lost in the idea of ​​putting labels and the essence of things is lost," says the Egyptologist Nacho Ares.

“This has more of a cinema or virtual reality than a typical museum.”

In both shows there is a space dedicated to virtual reality.

All you have to do is put on your glasses and helmets and start a journey through Portlligat, the town where Dalí's house-museum is located and where many of his influences came from.

Or a spectacular and effective tour of Ancient Egypt.

In 2013, the Reina Sofía organized an exhibition on the painter that was the most viewed of that year.

It is no coincidence that the immersives bet on a certain type of artist or historical moment because, as Nacho Ares says of his project, “Ancient Egypt sells itself”.

Tutankhamun's exhibition places 2,000 tickets for advance sale every day, they have more than 100,000 in two months, according to data from those responsible.

General admission costs 21.40 euros.

Dalí's is 18 euros, 21 if you go on a weekend or holiday.

In the Prado, the general ticket is 15 euros, but after 6:00 p.m. it is free.

The general of the Reina Sofía is 12 euros, with free admission from 7:00 p.m. and on Sundays from 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.

What these private companies do not offer are the figures of the budgets of these exhibitions,

Traditional museums reject that a competition has been generated with this type of initiative.

They wield the figures of visits with which they will conclude the year.

Almost 2.5 million people have gone to the Prado this year, in December 8,000 more people a day than in the same month of 2021. At the Reina they celebrate that young people have returned to their rooms after the hard years of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, spaces with the necessary technology to make art an interactive experience without the need for original works are reproduced throughout Spain.

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber

Source: elparis

All life articles on 2022-12-19

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.