“In Russia, digital art is just beginning to develop” – Kommersant FM

Kommersant FM columnist Dmitry Butkevich discusses the prospects for immersive institutions and tokenization of works of art in Russia.

It can be stated that in our country digital art is just beginning to develop. As the author of The Art Newspaper Russia figuratively writes, one of the hypostases of digital art – “immersive exhibitions”, that is, large exhibition spaces with simultaneous projection on the ceiling, walls and floor – is in our state of “The Arrival of the Train” by the Lumière brothers regarding “Avatar” » James Cameron.

We do not yet have what are now called “immersive institutions,” like the huge Outernet space in London’s West End, where there are four halls with a total of 2 thousand seats. In 2023 alone, it was visited by 6.25 million people, more than the British Museum. Or the recently opened MSG Sphere in Las Vegas. The height of the dome is 11 m. The world’s largest spherical screen with a diameter of 157 m and an area of ​​54 thousand square meters. m, carrying 1.2 million LED elements. It accommodates 20 thousand people at a time, opened in September 2023 and cost $2.3 billion.

In total, according to the newspaper, there are now more than 100 immersive institutions. New ones will open in 2024 in Abu Dhabi, Hamburg and Shanghai.

In Russia, experts note ArtPlay Media, which now specializes in so-called animated paintings – Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, Ivan Aivazovsky. Lumiere Hall is engaged in the same “revitalization” in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The M’ARS Center is more sophisticated; the technology here is, admittedly, weaker, but there is more spirituality.

Of course, so far, domestic “immersiveness” is far from the “tokenization” of works of art, where we almost really find ourselves “ahead of the rest.” Here our country takes a leading position.

Remember I tell you told about the “art tokens” that were invented by the Hermitage and Interros, where the tokens reflect the process of restoration of frescoes from the museum collection? I will follow the development of this artistic and digital project and hope to receive comments from Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky about the prospects for its development.