This time, BMW Art Club is collaborating with the Grand Theatre – National Opera. As part of the event, guests will be able to participate for the first time in Poland in EVOLVER, a sensory experience directed by Marshmallow Laser Feast. Thanks to virtual reality, it will be possible to interact with art in multiple dimensions. The creators of EVOLVER are renowned for combining art, science and modern technology. In doing so, they have created an installation that traces the path of oxygen travelling through the human body down to a single cell
The project was created in collaboration with prominent figures from the world of culture: Cate Blanchett lent her voice to the narration, and the soundtrack features songs by Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead), among others. EVOLVER is scheduled to premiere at the Opera Gallery of the Grand Theatre – National Opera on 12 October 2023. The exhibition will run until 10 December
The artistic dimension of science
Science and art are expressions of the same human need – to understand and describe the world. The EVOLVER project takes the viewer on a free immersive journey through the processes that underpin all life. The all-encompassing VR experience transports the viewer into a microcosm of the human body, mirroring the macrocosm of nature. Traversing structures hidden deep beneath the skin, viewers follow the process of breathing – from the intake of air by mouth into the lungs, to its transport through the blood vessel system into the cells, to its release back into the outside world
The artists of the Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF) collective were on a mission to find common ground between scientific precision and artistic emotionality. By placing the viewer at the intersection of these ecosystems, they wanted to emphasise that we function simultaneously in both
Invited artists and consultants from prestigious scientific institutions played a key role in the creation of EVOLVER. The executive producer of EVOLVER is director Terrence Malick, a living legend of cinema, author of cult films such as: “Badlands” “The Thin Red Line” and “The Tree of Life”. Actress Cate Blanchett lent her voice to the project. Poet Daisy Lafarge and Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood also contributed. EVOLVER will also feature musical compositions by Meredith Monk, a performer known for her innovative vocal techniques; Golden Globe-winning film composer Jóhann Jóhannsson; composer, pianist and accordionist Howard Skempton; and electronic musician and producer Jon Hopkins, among others
Scientists from a number of institutions studying the functioning of the human body were also involved in the creation of EVOLVER. They oversaw the quality of every detail of the human body scans used by the artists. They made sure that they were faithfully rendered in virtual reality. Among the institutions scientifically supporting the project were the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Medicine MEVIS, The Allen Institute for Cell Science and the Buck Institute for Research on Ageing
In building EVOLVER, the MLF artists sought a balance between the various dimensions of the project; aesthetic, scientific, visual, audio – so as to create in virtual reality a universe that is both real and beautiful, affecting the senses, emotions, creating space for intellectual reflection. – notes Stach Szabłowski, curator of the BMW Art Club. The future is art
Sensory experience
BMW Art Club. Since its first edition, Future is Art has been devoted to those areas of culture where new ideas, answers to the challenges of the present and visions of the future are born at the meeting point of art and technology. This year’s edition touches on a key issue for the entire series: how new technologies can expand both the artistic possibilities of artists and our understanding of the contemporary world and the place of man in it
Presented at the Opera Gallery, EVOLVER is a high-tech visionary sensory experience. The whole experience begins with a ten-minute meditation in a specially designed relaxation space where, following the voice of Cate Blanchett, visitors undergo ‘decompression’. In the next room, the VR experience proper begins, accompanied by a monumental, multi-dimensional video projection. After donning the goggles, participants embark on a twenty-minute virtual journey into the depths of the human body. The guide is the air taken in by the lungs. Following the air in their lungs, they travel to their destination, where they find a single cell of the body – a living microcosm that reflects the structure of the universe. The third part of EVOLVER, the epilogue, is a space for reflection on the experience lived. It takes the form of a gallery exhibiting digital works created by Marshmallow Laser Feast artists and a film that extends the exhibition’s narrative
Audiovisual technologies, such as VR, can be used to escape reality and immerse oneself in artificial worlds disconnected from real-world concerns. However, the same technologies can be used for the opposite purpose. After all, the new digital tools allow us not only to see, but also to experience the world in ways that were difficult to imagine until recently. – emphasises Barnaby Steel, co-creator of the Marshmallow Laser Feast
The event is being supported by Morele’s highest-performance NVIDIA-certified GeForce RTX Studio PCs, equipped with GeForce RTX 4080 graphics cards, which are part of the NVIDIA Studio platform aimed at artists, designers, engineers and professionals who need the best tools for working with images, video or virtual reality. The platform includes high-performance graphics cards, specialised software, and dedicated Studio drivers for optimal performance and stability. The whole system has been developed specifically for professional graphics applications, which include real-time ray traced rendering or support for artificial intelligence techniques
The EVOLVER project had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival 2022 in New York. The exhibition presented as part of BMW Art Club. The Future is Art at the Opera Gallery of the Grand Theatre – National Opera in Warsaw, will run from 12 October to 10 December 2023
source: BMW press materials
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