The Von der Heydt Museum invites you to an interactive art experience

The Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal is taking a virtual approach to communicating art in a new way. With the exhibition in honour of the German artist Oskar Schlemmer and an interactive "hands-on room", a visit to the museum becomes a VR experience.

Oskar Schlemmer's core theme was the human figure in space. His ideal was a synthesis of strict composition and mysticism made vivid in nature. The Oskar Schlemmer exhibition shows an excerpt of the approximately 300 paintings and drawings that are in the collection of the Von der Heydt Museum are located.

Museum to "join in

In addition to the exhibits, curator Beate Eickhoff offers visitors another special feature: Schlemmer's art is to be experienced directly. The interactive "participatory room" is entirely dedicated to Schlemmer's "Triadic Ballet". The experimental dance was first performed in 1922 and consists of spatial, formal and gestural dance.

Visitors to the "hands-on room" can feel panels with lacquer paints and assemble figures from geometric shapes. There are even costumes on display that were modelled on the "Triadic Ballet" - visitors are allowed to try them on and take photos. A special attraction, however, is the VR green room "Bauhaus Oasis".

Bauhaus Oasis: VR greenroom for design

In a twelve-square-metre green room, visitors virtually engage with Schlemmer's ballet. Equipped with an HTC Vive and two controllers, they create figures from geometric shapes in an abstract virtual space. Two monitors are mounted on the outside wall of the VR greenroom, through which other interested visitors can observe.

At the beginning, visitors throw objects into the corresponding molds. Once you have got used to the system after the short tutorial, you assemble three different dancers from the body parts lying around. Each figure consists of three parts that you put together individually. The finished "compositions" perform a dance taken from the "Triadic Ballet". In this way, you help shape the performance yourself.

Bauhaus-Oasis is awarded the Local VR Hero prize

The freelance filmmaker Florian Froger is behind the "Bauhaus Oasis". Together with a team from Bauhaus University, the French-born filmmaker created a new way to experience art. The Bauhaus Oasis project was funded by the Free State of Thuringia and premiered at the bauhaus100 exhibition in the first half of 2019. On the Short Addict Festival in Leipzig, Bauhaus-Oasis won the jury prize "Local VR Hero".

Source: Mixed / Youtube