On 17 April 2020, Culturespaces will open the largest digital art centre in the world: the Bassins de Lumières.
France’s leading private operator in the management and promotion of monuments, museums, and art centres, Culturespaces is pursuing the creation of digital art centres and immersive exhibitions.
Located in Bordeaux’s former submarine base, the Bassins de Lumières will present monumental immersive digital exhibitions devoted to the major artists in the history of art and contemporary art.
The submarine base’s surface area is three times the size of that of the Carrières de Lumières in Les Baux-de-Provence (left) and five times that of the Atelier des Lumières in Paris (right).
The digital exhibitions will be perfectly adapted to the monumental architecture of the submarine base and will be reflected in the water of the four enormous basins, thereby adding a new dimension to the immersive experience. Visits will be conducted on gangways above the water and along the quays of the enormous basins.
"Following the creation of the Atelier des Lumières, we are pleased that we have created this enormous digital art centre for the City of Bordeaux. The Bassins de Lumières will offer visitors unforgettable visual and audio experiences in a unique setting, a place for sharing culture that is open to all types of visitors."
Bruno Monnier, President of Culturespaces
The Bassins de Lumières: key figures
- 110-metre-long, 22-metre-wide, and twelve-metre-deep basins – a total surface area of 13,000 mq
- 12,000 mq of projection surface
- 3,000 mq of itinerary floor space
- 90 video projectors and 80 speakers
Immersive digital exhibitions
Throughout the year, the Bassins de Lumières will hold exhibitions for lovers of traditional and contemporary art, and several exhibitions will be presented simultaneously:
- around the four enormous basins will be presented a continuous cycle of immersive digital exhibitions alternating between a long exhibition, devoted to the major artists in the history of art, and a shorter exhibition devoted to more contemporary works.
- in Le Cube, a new 8-metre-high area with a surface area of 220 m2, devoted to contemporary artists specialising in immersive art, will be presented works by established and up-and-coming digital artists
- in La Citerne, a new 7-metre-high area with a surface area of 155 m2, the links between original works and their originating museums will be explored.
The exhibitions will be renewed each year.
The venue will be open 7 days a week.
2020 exhibition programme around the basins
‘Gustav Klimt: gold and colour’ – long programme
To mark its opening, the Bassins de Lumières will focus on a century of Viennese painting and take an original look at Gustav Klimt and his successors through a presentation of portraits, landscapes, nudes, colours, and gilding. Klimt led the Vienna Secession, a movement that sought to break away from academic art: he paved the way to modern painting. The gold and decorative motifs are a symbol of this artistic revolution. Visitors will discover large-format masterpieces, such as the famous work The Kiss, and will be immersed in Imperial Vienna at the end of the nineteenth century.
Created by Gianfranco Iannuzzi, Renato Gatto, and Massimiliano Siccardi, with the musical collaboration of Luca Longobardi.
‘Paul Klee: painting music’ – short programme
This immersive exhibition will be devoted to the colourful abstract works by the German artist Paul Klee. A painter and also a musician and professor, the immersive exhibition will pay tribute to Klee’s pictorial world. It will take visitors from an opera overture in an imaginary city to an underwater concerto amidst gold and multicoloured fish, and the rhythm of its geometric structures. Lastly, tens of corresponding portraits and puppets accompanied by Papageno’s song will conclude an enchanting interlude that combines painting and music.
Created by the video content creation studio Cutback.
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All the images are Simulations of the immersive exhibition – the Bassins de Lumières
© Culturespaces - Nuit de Chine; © akg-images; © akg-images/Erich Lessing; © Heritage Images/Fine Art Images/akg-images
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