Contemporary Art

5 Greatest Immersive Art Experiences

Agnieszka Cichocka 10 February 2022 min Read

The Cambridge English Dictionary describes immersion as “the fact of being completely involved in something.” The immersive art trends use new media to create a total body and mind experience and pull the audience into their own universe.

What Is Immersive Art?

Immersion is the act of being totally involved in something. When it comes to immersive art experiences, this includes activating all our senses. Such art pieces engage our sight, touch, and sometimes even smell. Using new media like video mapping, AR, VR, AI, sound technologies, and light shows, artists can create surroundings that suck in the viewer into their worlds. This way, one has the feeling of being part of the artwork. 

immersive art: Installation view: teamLab, Every Wall is a Door, 2021 Superblue, Miami, FL, USA. Superblue.

Installation view: teamLab, Every Wall is a Door, 2021 Superblue, Miami, FL, USA. Superblue.

Imagine that experiencing such art, you don’t only look at the painting but are a part of a fantastic journey. Either discovering iconic masterpieces and their details or contemporary works that by using cutting-edge technologies move us into fantasy realms. 

Becoming a whole with an exhibit, walking literally inside an artwork and interacting with it – who of us would not like to try it?

5 Greatest Immersive Art Experiences to See in 2022 

1. teamLab, Tokyo

teamLab is a collective of international and interdisciplinary groups of specialists – artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians and architects. Their collaborative work aims to investigate the confluence of art, science, technology, and the natural world. 

Founded by Toshiyuki Inoko and four of his friends, teamLab serves the audience with permanent art experiences in Shanghai, Tokyo, and Macao. The group also exhibits internationally. teamLab’s works are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco; Asia Society Museum, New York; Borusan Contemporary Art Collection, Istanbul; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and Amos Rex, Helsinki.

teamLab creates digital artworks which are based on the concept of borderless and integrate advanced technologies. Over the last 20 years, the group has gone a long way from presenting artworks on a single screen to employing a team of more than 600 people who create amazing digital art masterpieces. People all over the world line up to have a chance to be part of this magical experience.

2. Superblue, Miami

Superblue is an art space that opened in Florida in 2021. This groundbreaking new venture is dedicated to producing, showing, and engaging the audience with experiential art. It was launched with art installations including an immersive environment by Es Devlin, transcendent digital experience by teamLab, and a light-based Ganzfeld work by James Turrell. The creators of this place transformed an unused 50,000 square foot (4,645 square meters) industrial building into a vibrant culture and art center that will serve not only the community in the region but aims to be an important spot on the international map of Contemporary art.

Superblue encourages visitors to enjoy experiential art outside of traditional museums and galleries.

immersive art: 




Installation view: DRIFT, Meadow, 2021, Superblue, Miami, FL, USA. Photo by Oriol Tarridas Photography via Superblue.

Installation view: DRIFT, Meadow, 2021, Superblue, Miami, FL, USA. Photo by Oriol Tarridas Photography via Superblue.

Superblue has recently opened its venture in London. Located in a historic Burlington Gardens space in the heart of the city, it opened its door with an unforgettable multi-sensory installation by the artist duo A.A. Murakami. Entitled Silent Fall, which “is a poignant confrontation of our environmental reality – its past, present, and assumed future.” 1

immersive art: 






Installation view: A.A. Murakami, Silent Fall, 2021, Superblue, London, UK. Photo by Alessandra Kila via Superblue.

Installation view: A.A. Murakami, Silent Fall, 2021, Superblue, London, UK. Photo by Alessandra Kila via Superblue.

3. Meow Wolf, Santa Fe, Las Vegas, Denver

House of Eternal Return in Santa Fe is the first arts space created by Meow Wolf in 2016. In 2021, they established two more locations – one in Denver and one in Las Vegas. Meow Wolf began in 2008 as an informal art collective of Santa Fe artists. They create immersive and interactive experiences that take their audiences of all ages into fantastic realms and stories that engage and include participation. 

Their mission is to inspire creativity and imagination through art, exploration, and play. Each creation of Meow Wolf is different. While House of Eternal Return in Santa Fe is an innovative and imaginative fun-house with rooms of immersive art, secret passages, and interactive light. Locations in Las Vegas and Denver show us other art concepts.

Denver’s Convergence Station is an enormous, 90,000 square foot (8,361 square meters) narrative art exhibition built around the concept of quantum travel. Visitors can explore four floors and more than 70 immersive, interactive installations designed by more than 300 artists. 

Omega Mart in Las Vegas combines purchasable products and art installations. It hosts interactive art, installation rooms, and portals to other worlds from artists such as Brian Eno, Amon Tobin, Shrine, Beach House, and Android Jones.

4. Atelier des Lumières, Paris

Atelier des Lumières in Paris is run by one of the biggest French actors for the global management of monuments, museums, and art centers. Their aim is to create digital art centers and immersive digital exhibitions around the world. Apart from Paris, you can find their venues in Bordeaux, Dubai, or Jeju.

immersive art: Installation view: Monet, Renoir… Chagall, 2020, Atelier des Lumières, Paris, France. Photo by Culturespaces / D. Chauvet-Roldan. Atelier des Lumières.
Installation view: Monet, Renoir… Chagall, 2020, Atelier des Lumières, Paris, France. Photo by Culturespaces / D. Chauvet-Roldan. Atelier des Lumières.

In Paris this year you can visit two exhibitions: Cézanne, the Lights of Provence and Kandinsky, the Odyssey of Abstraction

In the Lights of Provence, the story that unfolds in front of our eyes takes us on an unusual journey in which we can see Cézanne’s inner torment, his attitude to light and color, importance of nature in his compositions, and the sources of his inspiration. 

The immersive exhibition of Kandinsky focuses on his “spiritual quest” and shows the major artistic phases of his life, from Moscow to Paris. It is composed of two parts: his figurative work and the birth of abstraction.  

immersive art: Installation view: Monet, Renoir… Chagall, 2020, Atelier des Lumières, Paris, France. Photo by Culturespaces / D. Chauvet-Roldan. Atelier des Lumière.
Installation view: Monet, Renoir… Chagall, 2020, Atelier des Lumières, Paris, France. Photo by Culturespaces / D. Chauvet-Roldan. Atelier des Lumière.

5. Artechouse, Miami

Artechouse was first launched in Washington DC in 2017. Now it has other venues in NYC and Miami. Pioneering in experiential art, the space is full of works that are created as a combination of art, technology, and science. Their mission is to show pieces that cross borders and have no limits of expression and innovation. 

Currently Artechouse has on display their original production, Renewal 2121. With the use of creative technologies, this exhibition takes us 100 years from now where nature’s resilience is at the center of attention. 

The audience can “traverse through a cyberpunk cityscape, an interactive market, bustling alleyways, busy datacenter, and a daiko drum experience to find nature blooming in the most unexpected places amidst this industrial future.”

Footnotes

1
Es Devlin, Teamlab, James Turrell Inaugurate Groundbreaking Experiential Art Destination, Superblue Miami.” Superblue. Accessed on 18th Jan 2022.

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