MAK Vienna Celebrates 100 Years Since Klimt's Death with Immersive VR Exhibition

The MAK in Vienna marks the centenary of Gustav Klimt's death with an immersive exhibition featuring a virtual reality experience titled "KLIMT'S MAGIC GARDEN: A Virtual Reality Experience." Directed by Fredrick Backer, the project merges virtual scenery with landscapes inspired by Klimt's stays on Lake Attersee, Austria's largest lake. Visitors wear VR headsets to explore environments reminiscent of the artist's life (1862–1918). The labyrinthine, multi-layered structure allows users to navigate the landscape as if within a Klimt work, reinterpreting the concept of the "total work of art" as defined by philosopher Odo Marquard, which involves erasing boundaries between aesthetic structures and reality. The exhibition also highlights Klimt's mosaic frieze in the dining room of the Palais Stoclet in Brussels, one of his major works, with its cartoons held at the MAK. The Palais Stoclet was commissioned by industrialist Adolphe Stoclet in 1905 to architect and designer Josef Hoffmann, co-founder of the Wiener Werkstätte, who furnished it with contributions from many Werkstätte members. The VR experience, lasting only five minutes, offers multiple directions, making the viewer an active participant who can choose their path. This experiment, which fuses past and present, confirms the MAK's commitment to exploring new technologies. The exhibition runs until April 22, 2018, at the MAK FORUM MAK, Stubenring 5, 1010 Vienna.