New cultural institution in New York opens with Gustav Klimt

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For all the Gustav Klimt fans who once stood shoulder to shoulder for a selfie in front of “Adele Bloch-Bauer I” at the Neue Galerie on New York’s Upper East Side, there are more opportunities in the summertime, in the paintings of Gustav Klimt almost to bathe. Klimt, Gold in Motion is the name of the exhibition coming to Tribeca, New York’s first permanent, immersive arts center.

The art world may still be reluctant to embrace immersive art experiences as “art,” but the images that saturate our social media feeds on a daily basis make them almost impossible to ignore. You are not new. The Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama made her debut in 1965 with her first “Infinity Mirror Room”. But against the backdrop of the pandemic, a new industry has emerged. Glowing digital art spaces have sprung up like mushrooms in dozens of cities around the world. Guests are immersed in video projections like a kind of 360-degree IMAX. Usually it’s pop-ups, but now such a space is being added as a permanent institution in the US.

One of the first Beaux-Arts-style high-rises across from City Hall Park, New York City’s oldest savings bank (“Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank”) will be transformed into a massive center for bespoke, immersive art experiences called Hall des Lumières. The art center is an initiative of Culturespaces, the French company known for founding the “Atelier des Lumières”, featured in Episode 5 of the Netflix series “Emily in Paris,” which sees the American heroine in an Instagrammable starry night of Vincent van Gogh bathes.

The Manhattan branch uses the same concept, with works by the world’s most celebrated artists animated and voiced on a monumental scale. The opening installation will focus on the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt. “Gustav Klimt: Gold in Motion” is described as a “thematic journey through the golden, sensual and revolutionary art of the Viennese painter”. The animated projections, a project by Italian Gianfranco Iannuzzi, are also accompanied by works by local visual artist and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

Klimt’s “The Kiss”, “Judith I”, “Tree of Life”, “Adele Bloch-Bauer I” and “Lady with a Fan” are among the works that can be seen on the exhibition’s website and adorn the marble walls, towering columns , stained glass and vaulted ceilings. The viewer can not only look at the “Kiss” from the Belvedere, one of the most iconic Art Nouveau paintings and probably one of the most romantic works of art ever created, but rather become part of it.

“Klimt, Gold in Motion” is just one of many recent immersive art experiences. Works by Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Claude Monet and Leonardo da Vinci have been digitized and featured in pop-ups from Vienna to Chicago. More and more people don’t just want to see art on walls, they want to be a part of art. And companies like Culturespaces, Meow Wolf, Exhibition Hub and teamLab have recognized this. It’s big business. According to the HERE Institute’s 2020 Annual Report on the Immersive Entertainment Industry, the sector was valued at more than $61.8 billion at the start of 2020 — a 19 percent increase from $49.7 billion in 2019.

Last summer, two Van Gogh lighting experiences simultaneously competed for the crowd in New York City. The titles of the two were so similar (“Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience” and “Immersive Van Gogh Experience New York”) that some people didn’t know which exhibition they bought tickets for. Similar shows dedicated to the popular post-impressionist took place in around 40 rooms in the USA at the same time, including in Vienna until March 8 in the METAstadt.

There will also be at least one other immersive Klimt exhibition in New York City this year, entitled Klimt: The Immersive Experience, by the same creators who brought Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience to the city . So there are enough kisses for everyone. The Hall des Lumières, meanwhile, will feature a new installation every 10 to 12 months, with opening dates for “Klimt, Gold in Motion” due to be announced in the coming weeks.

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