Immersive art experience! Madrid will build the first permanent virtual reality museum

The reference news network reported on January 18 that according to the website of Spain's "Economist", Madrid will open Europe's first permanent virtual reality and digital art museum to provide audiences with an immersive art experience.

The Madrid Municipality's Centre for Contemporary Creation, the Matadro Cultural Center, will open the first digital art and virtual reality center in Spain and Europe, the Madrid Digital Art Museum (MAD). However, it is not only a museum, but also a revolutionary center for the development of digital culture, unique in Europe.

In this museum, the latest technology is applied to the services of the most innovative cultural and artistic experiences – a creative space based on immersive experimentation with audiovisual projects, augmented reality, virtual reality and holographic technology.

Art, science and technology have come together to transform the Madrid Digital Art Museum into an avant-garde space aimed at bringing culture closer to the public in an accessible, natural and innovative way with technology as the main thread. The 2,000 m2 facility of the Madrid Digital Art Museum will showcase different content and experiences, while the technical support will make each visit of the audience a unique experience according to the characteristics of the different exhibitions. An 800-square-meter immersive digital reality screen, a 300-square-meter interactive exhibition hall and a large-scale exhibition hall will form a large-scale digital experience center.

In addition, the Madrid Digital Art Museum will become a center for digital art and R&D to practice the most avant-garde new immersive technologies. To this end, the museum will have a team of professionals dedicated to developing new technologies that will always be applied to artistic creation, thus giving each exhibition it hosts its own unique personality.

At the upcoming opening ceremony on March 4, the center will host a large-scale immersive performance based on the work of the Viennese symbolist painter Gustav Klimt. This immersive experience will immerse audiences of all ages in the vibrant Vienna of the turn of the century and experience first-hand the evolution of the work of the great Austrian artist. Large projections, over 900 square meters of immersive projection space, 3D experiences with virtual reality glasses, exhibition spaces and interactive equipment make up a spectacular cultural project to satisfy the tastes of all audiences.

Specifically, three leading production companies have jointly created the Madrid Digital Art Museum: the Spanish company Layers of Reality, SOM Produce and the Dutch company Stardust. The project requires an initial funding of €3 million for the renovation of the physical space alone. Starting from the opening ceremony, in the next 10 years, 3 companies will produce content that was initially only visible at the Matadero Cultural Center.

Madrid has always attached great importance to the development of digital art, having already launched the Madrid City Digital Arts Festival (MMMAD) in 2021. The festival, which was held for the first time last May, was attended by 54 artists from 15 countries, whose works were displayed on a screen in the heart of Madrid and turned the urban space into a window to showcase digital art. (Editor/Liu Lifei)