KLIMTS KUSS - EINE IMMERSIVE GESCHICHTE
ALEGRIA FRIZZ SENSOR MERKURIST.DE JOURNAL LOCAL presents KLIMTS KUSS:
The immersive art experience "KLIMTS KUSS – Playing with Fire" showcases a touching multimedia show about the life and work of Art Nouveau pioneer Gustav Klimt (1862–1918). In addition to his female portraits, female allegories, and landscape paintings, the Viennese painter gained worldwide fame especially with his painting "The Kiss". KLIMTS KUSS narrates the life journey of the artistic genius – a game with fire – as an immersive show. Before the show begins, visitors are familiarized with the main milestones in the painter's life. Thanks to digital effects, one can interact with Klimt's art and even become part of his masterful paintings. During the subsequent shower experience in three acts, visitors fully immerse themselves in the world of the artist, as illusion transforms into reality: animations and projections, combined with music and acoustic effects, create intoxicating, ornamental color worlds, bringing Klimt and his work to life and making it tangible.
One listens to the voices of a young student of today and Emilie Flöge (1874–1952), Klimt's closest confidante and muse at the time. In a fictional dialogue, the women guide through the unique show, taking the visitor on an emotional journey back to Vienna around the turn of the century. They narrate and comment on Klimt's successes and scandals, his tragedies and romances. And they cast a critical look at the "painter of women" from a female perspective: Are his works timeless representations of feminine beauty, or does he portray women as objects of desire?
To each time its art, to art its freedom. (Klimt)
The entry into the multimedia narrative is made by the prologue. An impressive interplay of visualization and sound transports the visitor to Schloss Immendorf, where ten major works of the artist were destroyed in a fire towards the end of World War II. Fire, the central element of the show, visually engulfs the entire space in flames and stands as a symbol of outbreak, destruction, transformation, and new beginnings. Here, the young student, who is inspired by Klimt's works, and his life partner Emilie Flöge are introduced as narratives of the show. The visitor perceives the women as fictional voices from offstage and immerses in the first creative phases of the artist in the first act: The photographic portraits of famous contemporaries like Wittgenstein and Freud, as well as images of Vienna around the turn of the century, form the backdrop for the time travel into a society in transformation. Visualizations of exhibition catalogs and magazines of the famous Viennese Secession make the era accessible to the visitor in the tension between tradition and modernity.
All art is erotic. (Klimt)
The story takes shape and focuses in the second act on the key works of the artist, which the visitor experiences intensively and from completely new perspectives. Artistically animated slide shows displayed on high-resolution screens showcase the faculty images, the Beethoven Frieze, the world-famous female portraits of his "Golden Period," and erotic nude drawings, revealing the many facets of the artistic genius. In the midst of it all, a roaring fire ignites on the projection surfaces in the room with crackling sound effects, dramatically staging the climax of his crisis and the turning point of his artistic creation: Klimt transforms from an academic painter into a visionary and revolutionary.
Now, the audience embarks with Emilie and the student to Attersee, a region that was both a place of yearning and a source of inspiration for the artist. It is also a special stop on the journey for the fashion designer Emilie, as she spent uninterrupted summer time with Klimt here. Natural sounds underscore the projections of black-and-white images of the creative couple and his unmistakable landscape paintings. Here, one also encounters works from his final creative phase: The walls shine in the vibrant colors of his works, where mythology and symbolism intersect. The narrative culminates in the moving finale of the show, which stages "The Kiss" as a testament to an extraordinary love story. As a visitor, one is virtually drawn into the world-famous painting, which is depicted both in its entirety and in countless details on the walls of the showroom. With all its subtleties, the viewer is invited to rediscover the masterpiece again and again. The extraordinary composition of the two lovers in eternal embrace is an emotionally touching experience as a visual spectacle.
With the epilogue, the last act of the show, the visitor is brought back to the present. The two women discuss Klimt's complex engagement with emancipation, female desire, and a changing image of women. In doing so, they impressively bridge the gap between the past and the present. Visually, the work of the Austrian artist is also transported into today: The faculty images destroyed by fire, preserved only as black-and-white reproductions, are bathed in brilliant colors before the eyes of the audience – and can thus come alive on the screens thanks to cutting-edge technology.
Art meets the latest technology – What does the term "immersive" mean?
"Immersive" describes an effect where the viewer immerses themselves in a multimedia illusion of image and sound and perceives it as absolutely real. Through a 3D mapping projection system, content such as graphics, animations, images, or videos can be projected onto three-dimensional objects, creating a unique atmosphere.
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