Video mapping, immersive experience and digital art creative studio, Dirty Monitor has worked with exhibition organisers ChillHoYeah Hong Kong, to create a “radical” new projection gallery concept celebrating the art of Monet, presented in a special temporary venue erected at Hong Kong’s Xiqu Centre in the West Kowloon District, before moving to on to other destinations in Southeast Asia, the US and around the world.
“En Voyage with Claude Monet” will run for three months at this site, and is the first full scale project by D-Mines, Dirty Monitor’s new creative content production management division. Headed up by Benjamin Bauwens, who has previously worked at ArKaos and as a video specialist for rental giants PRG, the exhibition takes elements from 200 of Monet’s masterworks, digitally blending them into one large 360-degree digital canvas in a projected show that runs for 36 minutes – an immersive mapped show that delicately merges the paintings into a single landscape.
The digital canvas measures 5.7 metres high and 94 metres in length, arranged in a large, 360-degree rectangular format. The screen material is a special SB Blackout PVC sourced from fabric specialist Showtex, stretched taught across custom frames also supplied by Showtex. Projections are achieved using 14 x Panasonic PT-RCQ10 projectors, rigged on a central truss in the roof of the venue for optimal positioning.
For supporting projections across the entire gallery floor, six of Robe’s ProMotion digital moving head effects and video projectors were picked to content and images around the space, – said to be a first for an immersive installation like this. A 7:1 surround audio installation was installed by locally-based Shalom AV Technology.
“This is a hugely exciting idea set to revolutionise the way art can be appreciated – not just by traditional art lovers, but by new, different and diverse audiences who may not necessarily ever think of visiting a traditional art gallery,” said Bauwens.
The show is accompanied by a soundtrack commissioned by Dirty Monitor and composed, produced and performed by the renowned Echo Collective, and is guided by a voice-over that follows trails and thoughts running through Monet’s letters and an interview he did whilst travelling, revealing inspirations gathered on these various trips.
Visitors stand in the middle of the gallery space to absorb the sonic and visual moods – snapshots of ambience that can trigger any number of slightly abstract but relatable moments from Monet’s life. Insights that can be interpreted in multiple ways according to the person engaging with the artwork as the audience becomes absorbed as part of his travels, sharing in his quest for colours, light and water reflections.
Dirty Monitor’s creative lead for En Voyage with Claude Monet, Audrey Ballez, explained: “Monet’s life was full of ups and downs with an identity quest and a need for recognition of his art, but also marriage, birth, death and remarriage … So his life is a mine of interesting material to explore in terms of putting emotion at the heart of the immersive show!”
