{"id":9789,"date":"2023-07-19T15:14:43","date_gmt":"2023-07-19T13:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/?p=9789"},"modified":"2023-07-20T16:35:50","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T14:35:50","slug":"immersive-exhibitions-salvation-for-the-art-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/9789\/immersive-exhibitions-salvation-for-the-art-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Immersive exhibitions: Salvation for the art world?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Digitalization, diversity, invisible barriers \u2013 nowadays it\u2019s hard for traditional art museums to stay relevant in a society that is moving fast. Therefore, new ideas and changes are needed to attract younger audiences. One example are immersive art exhibitions like \u201cViva Frida Kahlo\u201d. A trend to stay or to pass soon?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mexican music, whistling birds, and colorful paintings. This scenery can currently be experienced in the Marx Hall <\/em>in Vienna \u2013 an old cattle hall with 20,000 square meters that is nowadays used for various events. Since April 27, the venue hosts the exhibition Viva Frida Kahlo<\/em>, the world’s first immersive staging of the famous Mexican artist and her work. The immersive exhibition is one example of presenting art in a new way while traditional museums struggle in finding new audiences.<\/p>\n[aesop_gallery id=”9796″]\n

Today\u2019s problems<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to cultural scientist Nora Wegener, the audience of traditional museums get constantly older. One example is the Van Gogh Museum<\/em> in Amsterdam. Here the main age group for Dutch visitors (including expats, exchange students, 18 % in total) is 65 to 74 years old and 45 to 54 years for internationals (82 %)*. The same can be seen for the Rijksmuseum<\/em> in Amsterdam: with a main age group older than 65 years the audience was relatively old in 2022**. This goes for national and international visitors. On top, it\u2019s the group that grew the most comparing to the year before.<\/p>\n[aesop_gallery id=”9798″]\n

These statistics show that younger people tend not to visit traditional museum. A trend that can be explained by the various competition museums face nowadays: \u201cIt has always been an issue to get people into museums. But today it has become even more difficult due to all other kinds of digital offers like social media, Netflix, or other things that occupy people. On top, our attention spans have changed. Being relevant for society has probably become more difficult for an institution that is still very much stuck in its ways in the 19th century\u201d, says Julienne Lorz, professor for Expanded Museum Studies<\/em> at the University of Applied Arts Vienna<\/em>.<\/p>\n[aesop_quote type=”block” background=”#282828″ text=”#ffffff” align=”center” size=”1″ quote=”"Being relevant for society has probably become more difficult for an institution that is still very much stuck in its ways in the 19th century" – Prof. Julienne Lorz” parallax=”off” direction=”left” revealfx=”frombelow”]\n

\u201cAlso, there\u2019s like an invisible barrier\u201d, continues Lorz. \u201cEverything’s very sort of highbrow or something where you feel like \u2018oh my god, if I don’t have a PhD, I won’t understand anything\u2019.\u201d Therefore, improvement and new options to attract younger audiences are needed. \u201cIt’s important for museums to keep evolving and to try breaking down the barriers in order to still keep a relevancy for themselves in society itself,\u201d says Lorz. One idea that seems to work are immersive exhibitions: \u201cMost of the people who go to a classical museum have a higher education level. It’s not for everybody, so we hope to make art accessible for everyone. Because it should be\u201d, says Fabian Quatember, member of the organizing team of Viva Frida Kahlo<\/em>.<\/p>\n

An immersive world<\/strong><\/p>\n

35 projectors and 40 VR glasses \u2013 this state-of-the-art technology allows visitors of Viva Frida Kahlo<\/em> a unique immersive experience over 2000 square meters. Moreover, the exhibition offers much information about Frida Kahlo\u2019s life: \u201cIt starts very classical with a timeline and some interactive features. Here you can see the paintings of Frida Kahlo developing. Then we have a big virtual reality experience where you can get in touch with Frida Kahlo herself before you go into our Casa Azul\u201d, tells Quatember. Here visitors are taken to Frida Kahlo\u2019s home in Coyoac\u00e1n, Mexico, where the artist lived and began to paint after a serious bus accident.<\/p>\n[aesop_gallery id=”9794″]\n

Quatember continues: \u201cThe main part of the exhibition is our immersive room where you can spend about 45 minutes and see everything that happened in her life. That’s the grand finale.\u201d In the 360 square meter sized main room, 29 projectors offer a 360-degree experience and project Frida\u2019s small sized artwork onto walls up to 24 meters long and 5.5 meters high, as well as onto the floor of the hall. \u201cYou can see a lot of Frida\u2019s self-portraits. She created hundreds of them where she portrayed herself with fruits, veggies, animals, and plants. Every single object represented something \u2013 and that’s what this exhibition really wants to show\u201d, explains Nora Wunderwald, Junior Communication Consultant of Sister Act<\/em>, the PR-agency of the exhibition.<\/p>\n[aesop_gallery id=”9791″]\n

In 1939, Kahlo herself wrote: \u201cThey thought I was a surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.\u201d Using Frida Kahlo\u2019s original quotes, a narrator in the role of the artist tells Frida’s life: \u201cFrida’s voice is spoken by the actress Anik\u00f3 Don\u00e1th. She does the German and the English voice,\u201d says Wunderwald. A short example can be heard here:<\/p>\n