VRUMS Opens Temporary VR Museum in Bologna During Arte Fiera

VRUMS – Virtual Reality Art Rooms, a new center for virtual reality based in Bologna, opened on November 29, 2019, at Via Zaccherini Alvisi. During Arte Fiera (January 23-26, 2020), it hosts a temporary museum titled "WHAT IF. La riproducibilità tecnica nell’epoca dell’opera d’arte," organized by Vitruvio Virtual Museum and curated by Eleonora Frattarolo. The project surveys extended reality technologies in art, cinema, and science through works that reproduce past or future realities. The exhibition comprises six projects: five previously shown and one new piece, "What If," exploring human emotions via the four elements (air, earth, fire, water). Featured works include Enrico T. De Paris's "Synapse" (previously at Triennale di Milano), an interactive molecular labyrinth; "Casa DO UT DO," a VR experience for Fondazione Isabella Seràgnoli based on a design by Alessandro Mendini with rooms by architects such as Mario Cucinella, Michele De Lucchi, Daniel Libeskind, and Renzo Piano; "Casa Malaparte," transporting viewers inside Curzio Malaparte's modernist masterpiece in Capri; "Leggero – Tributo a Freak Antoni," a VR tribute to the Italian musician featuring a marble sculpture by Daniele Rossi; and two interactive VR documentaries for the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica: "Progetto SKA" (set in the South African desert) and "Astri Mini-Array" (on Mount Teide, Tenerife).