The pandemic may have shut the doors of galleries and museums worldwide, but not for the virtual eye. Widespread digitisation of collections and space bears fruit in being able to host visitors online. So why not put an end to the monotony and transform your screen into a canvas in the blink of an eye? Here is our list of 9 not-so-widely-known initiatives that have gone digital. All away from the crowded servers of the National Gallery and the Louvre.
Acute Art digital projects
Link: https://acuteart.com/
Explore the latest collaborations of the pioneering new media art platform. Acute Art provides solutions for cutting-edge digital installations and interactive scenarios. Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality projects can be explored through their app, all curated by Daniel Birnbaum – former director of Modern Museet Stockholm and curator of the 53rd Venice Biennale. Explore Ai Weiwei’s first Virtual Reality work ‘Omni’ (2019) and save Marina Abramović from drowning in the interactive ‘Rising’ (2018).
Robot Tours by Hastings Contemporary
Link: https://www.hastingscontemporary.org/exhibition/robot-tours/
Hastings Contemporary goes beyond the literal meaning of a virtual tour, letting a telepresence robot walk, or rather drive down the exhibition for you, accompanied by a guide. An English isolation must-visit already reported on in a viral BBC material. Shuttles to-and-fro the ‘Lines and Spaces’ survey of Victor Pasmore and Stephen Chambers’ ‘The Court of Redonda’ (2017). Places need to be booked well in advance.
Hastings Contemporary Robot Tours on BBC South East News from Hastings Contemporary on Vimeo.
Alserkal Art Week
Link: https://www.alserkal.online/
The cancelled UAE-based Alserkal Art Week moves on-line, bringing a vast array of 360-degree views of the participating galleries to the comfort of your home. More than fifteen artists and more than three hundred artworks in a variety of media. Not to mention the opportunity to discover creatives who explore the artistic legacies of the Middle East.
Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie
Link: https://biennalefotografie.de/en/news/virtueller-rundgang-durch-unsere-ausstellungen
The actual prints are out of reach for now, but David Campany-curated 2020 edition of Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie has moved to digital access. Revisit the celebrated Walker Evans in minute detail, witness the reconciliation ‘Between Art and Commerce’ and reconsider the diptych form with the exhibition ‘When Images Collide’.
Max Pinckers & Dries Depoorter, Trophy Camera v0.9, 2017 Courtesy Fotomuseum, Antwerpen
David Zwirner’s virtual platforms
Link: https://www.davidzwirner.com/viewing-room
Zwirner’s long-lasting commitment to providing online access to his galleries spares them an epidemic hiatus. Neatly designed ‘platforms’ filled with close-ups of the latest exhibits provide a chic alternative to the impudicity of VR and 360-degree technology parades. ‘Platform: New York’ and ‘Platform: London’ bring together twelve galleries from each city, allowing them to present available works from a single artist on their rosters. Along with three solo shows of Harold Ancart, James Welling and Yun Hyong-keun.
David Zwirner’s virtual platforms
Tallinn Art Hall virtually
Link: https://www.kunstihoone.ee/en/
A highest visual quality interactive web app presents a selection of recent exhibitions from the capital of Estonia. On view is the duo Paul Kuimet and Mihkel Ilus who blend paint with photography to uncover ‘the invisible systems that drive our world’ throughout their ‘Endless Story’. Accompanied by recent shows of Laura Kuusk, Ede Raadik and the group exhibition ‘Disarming Language: disability, communication, rupture’. Occasional live guided walks in English.
Net Art Anthology
Link: https://anthology.rhizome.org/
A digital preservation project of an affiliate of the New Museum of New York. Completed in 2019, presents hundreds artworks from the often neglected practice suffering from a shortage of historical perspectives. The Anthology celebrates art characterised by broad participation, which uses the net to give expression to emerging subjectivities and models new forms of collective cultural practice. Followed by a touring show from the New Museum.
REABRACADABRA ,EDUARDO KAC, 1985
Hong Kong digital galleries
Link: https://www.artpowerhk.com/?locale=en
An unprecedented effort to facilitate cooperation between institutions from the city and beyond. ART Power HK brings together and helps to promote several digital initiatives of its partners, regularly updating you on new viewing rooms, online exhibitions, and streamed talks; with the focus on emerging names of contemporary art and illustration. Includes a viewing room of ‘Puzzled Daydreams’ of Chris Huen Sin Kan at the local Simon Lee Gallery, and links to several other initiatives.
Frieze Viewing Rooms
Link: https://frieze.com/article/launching-frieze-viewing-room
The established magazine invites you to 200 augmented reality viewing spaces created with the collaboration of 200 galleries from across the globe. Frieze’s mobile app and web-based platform allowing you to access the viewing rooms will be live 8-15 May, when this year’s New York Frieze Art Fair was set to take place.
Put together by Franciszek Bryk
Edited by Contemporary Lynx
