A Dazzling Gustav Klimt Show Will Inaugurate New York’s First Permanent Immersive Experience Venue

The company behind Paris's Atelier des Lumières is opening a space in Manhattan.

Hall des Lumieres Klimt Exhibition Rendering.© Culturespaces.

New York City is getting a permanent immersive exhibition space, with a debut show dedicated to none other than Gustav Klimt.

The space, which will mount new “bespoke digital art experiences” every ten to 12 months, is the first foray into North America by the French production company Culturespaces, famous for its Atelier des Lumières immortalized in Emily in Paris. The company will set up show in the landmark Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank in downtown Manhattan, just across from City Hall Park.

The 33,000-square-foot building will be re-christened the Hall des Lumières, and is set to debut “Gustav Klimt: Gold in Motion,” an immersive experience dedicated to the Viennese painter, in summer 2022.

Organized by Culturespaces artistic director Gianfranco Iannuzzi and IMG, the events company that owns the Frieze art fairs, the installation will feature animated 30-foot images from Klimt’s most famous paintings, glowing and synchronized to an original score. There will also be reproductions of works along with information about the museums they’re housed in.

The company is expecting major interest: it says it drew more than 1.4 million visitors each year to its immersive Van Gogh experience in Paris.

Atelier des Lumieres Klimt Exhibition. © Culturespaces Eric Spiller

In conjunction with the Klimt show, the company will produce a shorter digital tribute to Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an Austrian artist and architect who incorporated elements of surrealism and ornamentation in his work, as well as a feature on the history of the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, a Beaux-Arts structure built between 1909 and1912 that was, for a time, the largest bank building in the U.S.

“When we surveyed the burgeoning field of immersive art experiences, we saw many companies trying to replicate the magic of Culturespaces’ digital art centers,” Stephen Flint Wood, managing director of arts and entertainment events at IMG, said in statement.

“But [Culturespaces is] the only one committed to creating true cultural destinations, where people of all ages can come again and again to engage with digital creations that are moving, mind-opening, and thoroughly interwoven with an authentic sense of historic place.”


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