The spectacular VR experience EVOLVER presented in this year’s edition of BMW Art Club. The Future is Art, at the Opera Gallery of the Polish National Opera, has been extended due to its huge success and the relentless interest of the visitors. Closing date has been moved to December 17, with the additional admission reservations opening on Friday, December 1.
The immersive, multimedia work of art, created by London-based art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast, uses an innovative fusion of art, science and modern technology to drop the audience deep inside the landscape of the body, following the flow of oxygen through our ecosystem, to a single breathing cell. The project was created in collaboration with multiple outstanding figures in the fields of art and science. Produced and directed by a living legend, the author of such classics as The Thin Red Line or The Tree of Life – Terrence Malick, with the narration by Cate Blanchett, contributions from poet Daisy Lafarge and a score featuring music from Radiohead’s guitarist Jonny Greenwood, pieces by the vocal innovator Meredith Monk, Golden Globe-winning composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, the composer, pianist and accordion player Howard Skempton, and the musician and electronic music producer Jon Hopkins. The key contribution to EVOLVER was brought by the scientists from a range of prestigious centers researching human body – the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Medicine MEVIS, The Allen Institute for Cell Science and Buck Institute for Research on Ageing, who watched over the quality of every detail of the human body reproduced in virtual reality.
“Audiovisual technologies, such as VR, can be used to escape reality or to delve deep in artificial worlds far away from real-life problems. But the same technologies can be used to an opposing effect. New digital tools allow us not only to perceive, but also to get to know and understand the world in a way which not long ago was hardly imaginable”, stresses Barnaby Steel, co- founder of Marshmallow Laser Feast.
EVOLVER presented in the Opera Gallery begins with a ten-minute audio meditation in a specially designed relaxation space, where visitors can decompress guided by the voice of Cate Blanchett. In the next room, they take part in a VR experience, accompanied by a monumental, multidimensional video screening. With VR goggles on, they embark on a twenty-minute virtual journey through the human body, following the flow of oxygen traveling to its final destination – an individual cell. The third part – an epilogue – encourages intellectual reflection, taking the form of a gallery and presenting digital pieces created by the members of Marshmallow Laser Feast as well as a film expanding on the narrative of the exhibition.
The admission is free and by invitation only. Bookings for the extended time of the exhibition can be made via the website of the National Polish Opera from December 1.
