Artworks by the likes of Vasarely and De Chirico are paired with Digital, VR and AI creations at a new exhibition in Rome, Italy.
ADVERTISEMENTArt and future technologies can co-work on shaping the art world together.
A bold statement considering fears that AI is getting too big for its boots, but an experimental exhibition in Rome's Palazzo Cipolla has run with the idea, by juxtaposing artworks from the past with digital, VR and AI creations. This weaves a common thread between the Baroque and the Metaverse.
Visitors are invited to swing between the real and digital worlds at 'Metaverse Hypothesis', where the works of 32 historical and contemporary artists from across the world are displayed in a strange composition; past and future, material and immaterial, Baroque and Metaverse are placed next to one another.
Artworks of De Chirico, Balla, Boccioni, Vasarely, Piranesi, and Escher are being brought into dialogue with site-specific works of innovative digital artists, such as Refik Anadol, Krista Kim, Primavera De Filippi, Feileacan McCormick and Sofia Crespo - who are considered pioneers of digital art, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and CGI.
Visitors enter a kind of 'laboratory of the future', designed to give them an experience similar to what they might see in years to come.
The exhibit starts with “Aiola: Floating Tales” (2013-2023) by Fabio Giampietro and Paolo Di Giacomo, a special swing that allows visitors to seemingly fluctuate between physical and digital worlds.
“The fundamental concept of the exhibition is to create a short circuit between the physical and digital," explains curator Gabriele Simongini. "The exhibition is based on an experience with masterpieces from the past, thus (works of) history, paintings, sculptures, and after a few metres, immersion in the digital."
“(The exhibition) testifies that the artist survives despite technological changes in society," adds Emmanuele F. M. Emanuele, president of the Fondazione Terzo Pilastro, which organized the exhibit. "If this were not so, Neanderthal in the age of machinery, in the age of the typewriter, in the age of the automobile, would have disappeared, but it has not, it continues and produces these marvels that you have seen. Man will prevail.”
At the end of the exhibition, visitors land in Refik Anadol's work, which, through a series of algorithms, gives the impression of entering the fluid and ever-changing environment we call the Metaverse.
'Metaverse Hypothesis' runs until 23 July at Rome's Palazzo Cipolla museum.
Watch the video above to learn more about this experience.
