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Grup Mediapro has opened Espai Imagina, a 1,200 square metre venue in Barcelona, with the exhibition Gaudí Code: The Untold Experience. The venue is at Avinguda Diagonal 177. Mediapro Xperiences, the group’s immersive experiences unit, invested €3 million in the show and the space, Ara reported.
The exhibition surrounds visitors with floor-to-ceiling projections across four areas, according to AV Magazine. It combines those projections with virtual, augmented and mixed reality. Advanced Television reported in September that Mediapro has scheduled the show to tour internationally.
The VR Collective reported in September that the Musée d’Orsay puts 80 visitors at a time through a museum VR experience.
In the XR Workshop, visitors wearing headsets walk between tables, AV Magazine reported. They interact with the objects on the tables virtually. The headsets are made by PICO Interactive, according to the same report.
Ara’s reviewer handled a virtual tool that reproduces one of Antoni Gaudí’s techniques for designing the Sagrada Família’s structure. A fall through the basilica’s nave in VR followed.
The first area sets the historical context with a timeline, Ara reported. It marks milestones in Gaudí’s biography alongside scientific, technical and cultural ones. Those include the invention of the periodic table, the first cinematographic projection and the premiere of Wagner’s Parsifal. The second area, The Fountain of Creation, uses a set of mirrors to show the geometry of light. Ara reported that a visit can run more than an hour.
The Gaudí Chair research centre at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia analysed original plans, drawings and calculations. From those it reconstructed four projects Gaudí designed and never built. They are the Hotel Attraction in New York, the Franciscan missions in Tangier, the ceremonial hall of the University of Barcelona and the Plaça Catalunya fountain. Mediapro then built the 3D models visitors explore, AV Magazine reported.
Galdric Santana is director of the Gaudí Chair and curated the exhibition. Santana told Ara the exhibition sets out Gaudí’s working method, “a method based on observation and on the science and technology of the time.”
Gaudí designed the Plaça Catalunya fountain in 1877 as a student exercise. The New Barcelona Post reported that the design was nearly 50 metres high and 66 metres across. Its parabolas were shaped so visitors could walk under the water without getting wet.
Adult tickets cost €17.50 on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, €23 on Saturday and Sunday and €12.50 on Monday, Ara reported. Tickets for children aged 4 to 12 cost €13.50, €18.50 and €12.50 on the same days. Children up to three enter free.
Espai Imagina will host two technology-led cultural and entertainment projects a year, AV Magazine reported. The programme combines Mediapro productions with external and international projects.
The show “is scheduled to become a touring experience to travel the world in the coming years,” Advanced Television reported in September.
Teo describes itself as the global resource for the international touring exhibitions community. It lists Mediapro Xperiences as a producer, distributor and host of immersive experiences. Mediapro Xperiences, part of Grup Mediapro, said more than 40 million visitors have been through its projects worldwide.
Mediapro is funding its push into technology-driven experiences with more than €100 million, Advanced Television reported. The group will generate that money itself over the next three years.
For museum operators, the exhibition runs four projection areas and one headset area, the XR Workshop. For touring-exhibition buyers, the show is scheduled to travel the world in the coming years, Advanced Television reported.
What is Gaudí Code: The Untold Experience, the architecture XR exhibition at Espai Imagina? It is the opening exhibition at Espai Imagina, Grup Mediapro’s 1,200 square metre venue at Avinguda Diagonal 177 in Barcelona. It combines floor-to-ceiling projection across four areas with virtual, augmented and mixed reality, according to AV Magazine.
Which Gaudí buildings does the XR exhibition reconstruct? The Hotel Attraction in New York, the Franciscan missions in Tangier, the ceremonial hall of the University of Barcelona and the Plaça Catalunya fountain. The Gaudí Chair at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia worked from original plans, drawings and calculations. Mediapro built the 3D models.
How much do Gaudí Code tickets cost in Barcelona? €17.50 on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, €23 on Saturday and Sunday and €12.50 on Monday, Ara reported. Children aged 4 to 12 pay €13.50, €18.50 and €12.50 on the same days. Children up to three enter free.
What headsets does the XR Workshop at Espai Imagina use? AV Magazine reported that visitors in the XR Workshop wear headsets made by PICO Interactive. They walk between tables and interact with the objects on them virtually.
Will the Gaudí architecture XR exhibition tour outside Barcelona? Advanced Television reported that the show “is scheduled to become a touring experience to travel the world in the coming years.”
