Dreams of Dalí: VR Experience at Salvador Dalí Museum Explores Dalí-Disney Friendship

The Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, has opened a new exhibition examining the relationship between Salvador Dalí and Walt Disney, who first met in the 1940s and recognized each other as kindred spirits. The show juxtaposes Disney's castle with Dalí's Dream of Venus pavilion from the 1939 New York World's Fair. It also features Destino, an animated short the two worked on together, recently completed by Disney Studios. The highlight is Dreams of Dalí, a virtual reality experience using Oculus Rift headsets that transports viewers inside Dalí's 1935 painting Archaeological Reminiscence of Millet's Angelus. Users navigate a 3D environment encountering recurring Dalí motifs like ants, elephants, birds, and his lobster telephone. The museum previously held exhibitions on Dalí's relationships with Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso, which set attendance records; this show is expected to draw even larger crowds due to Disney's popularity and the high-tech VR component.