WARSAW.- This year’s edition of BMW Art Club. The Future is Art will see the first Polish presentation of the VR experience EVOLVER. The immersive, multimedia work of art, created by London-based art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast, uses an innovative fusion of art, science and modern technology to drop audiences deep inside the landscape of the body, following the flow of oxygen through our branching ecosystem, to a single “breathing” cell.

The project was created in collaboration with various prominent cultural figures, with narration by Cate Blanchett, and a score featuring music from Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, amongst others.

Artistic dimension of science... Science and art give expression to the same human need – the need to understand and describe the world. EVOLVER is a free-roaming, immersive deep dive that takes viewers through the processes that sustain all life. The all-encompassing VR experience takes us on a journey through the microcosm of the human body, which simultaneously acts as the macrocosm of nature. Exploring structures hidden far beneath the skin, viewers are taken through a sequence of breathing, visualizing the very essence of life itself, as air travels from the mouth into the lungs, before circulating around the complex rivers of our cardiovascular system and back out into the natural world.

Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF) seek to highlight the common denominator between scientific precision and the emotional experience of art. Placing audiences at the centre of these ecosystems aims to bring them closer to an understanding of our interconnectedness.

Key contribution was brought to EVOLVER by invited artists and consultants from prestigious scientific centres. The executive producer is director Terrence Malick, a living cinematic legend, the author of such classics as “Badlands”, “The Thin Red Line”, and “The Tree of Life”. EVOLVER features the powerful voice of actress Cate Blanchett. The work also features contributions from poet Daisy Lafarge and Radiohead’s guitarist Jonny Greenwood. EVOLVER’s score also features musical pieces by the vocal innovator Meredith Monk, Golden Globe-winning composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, the composer, pianist and accordion player Howard Skempton, and musician and electronic music producer Jon Hopkins.

The creation of EVOLVER would not be possible without the support of scientists from a range of centres researching the human body. They kept tabs on the quality of every detail of the scans of the human body used by the artists and reproduced in virtual reality. Scientific consultants of the project include Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Medicine MEVIS, The Allen Institute for Cell Science and Buck Institute for Research on Ageing.

When building EVOLVER, the artists from MLF were trying to strike balance between different dimensions: aesthetic, scientific, visual and auditory, to create a virtual universe which is both true and beautiful, which appeals to the senses and emotions, which opens a space for an intellectual reflection – points out Stach Szabłowski, the curator of BMW Art Club. The Future is Art.

A visionary experience for the senses

Since the very first edition, BMW Art Club. The Future is Art explores those fields of culture where the combination of art and technology gives birth to new ideas, answers to the challenges of the present day as well as visions of the future. This year’s edition touches upon the issue that has been central for the whole cycle: how new technologies can enhance the capabilities of artists and our understanding of the contemporary world with the place which humans occupy in it.

EVOLVER presented in the Opera Gallery is a technologically advanced visionary experience for the senses. It begins with a ten-minute audio meditation in a specially designed relaxation space. Spectators are invited to decompress, guided by the voice of Cate Blanchett. In the next room, they proceed to take part in a VR experience, accompanied by a monumental, multidimensional video screening. With VR googles on, they embark on a twenty-minute virtual journey through the human body, following the flow of oxygen, as it is taken into the lungs and travels to its final destination – an individual cell of the body – a living microcosm, which reflects the structure of the whole universe. The third part of EVOLVER – the epilogue – encourages reflection over the recent experience. It takes the form of a gallery, presenting digital pieces created by the members of Marshmallow Laser Feast and a film expanding on the narrative of the exhibition.

Audiovisual technologies, such as VR, can be used to escape reality or to delve deep in artificial worlds far away from real-life problems. But the same technologies can be used to an opposing effect. New digital tools allow us not only to perceive, but also to get to know and understand the world in a way which not long ago was hardly imaginable – stresses Barnaby Steel, co-founder of Marshmallow Laser Feast.

The Polish premiere of EVOLVER is supported by Morele GeForce RTX Studio PCs, equipped with GeForce RTX 4080 GPUs and certified by NVIDIA. They are part of the NVIDIA Studio platform, aimed at artists, designers, engineers and other professionals who need powerful tools to work with graphics, video or virtual reality. The platform includes high-performance graphics cards, specialised software, and dedicated Studio drivers that deliver optimal performance and stability with the most popular 3D graphics, video, and animation software. The entire system has been created specifically for professional graphics applications, which include real-time ray traced rendering or support for AI technologies.

The world premiere of EVOLVER project took place at Tribeca Film Festival 2022 in New York. The exhibition presented as part of BMW Art Club. The Future is Art in the Opera Gallery of the Polish National Opera in Warsaw is open from 12 October until 10 December 2023.

The Artists

Marshmallow Laser Feast (Barnaby Steel, Ersin Han Ersin, Robin McNicholas) is one of the world’s leading immersive art collectives, expanding human perception and exploring our connections with the world of nature. The British artists have collaborated with culture institutions (among others, Barbican Art Center), theatre companies (Royal Shakespeare Company), festivals (Tribeca Festival) as well as musicians, co-authoring video clips and stage lighting (among others for Miley Cyrus and U2). The collective employs its characteristic aesthetic in real-time VR experiences, exploring perspectives unattainable for the human senses. Their first VR project, “In the Eyes of the Animal”, was shown at festivals all around the world. EVOLVER project premiered at Tribeca Festival in 2022 and was shown ecently in Museum Wave in Seoul.

BMW Art Club. The Future is Art

The project BMW Art Club. The Future is Art belongs to an over fifty-year long tradition of the brand’s global engagement in mecenate to support and create culture. BMW is famous for its partnerships with world’s leading culture institutions (Tate Modern in London, La Scala in Milan) and events (Art Basel). The projects under the auspices of BMW Art Club. The Future is Art focus on contact points between art and new technologies, showing that the combination of the freedom of creative imagination and the precision of advanced technologies give rise to completely new values.

BMW Art Club. The Future is Art was initiated by BMW in 2018. Previous editions featured Boris Kudlička, Witek Orski with Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and Michael Hansmeyer. Subsequent editions of the project are conducted in collaboration with Polish leading culture institutions. Up to date, they include Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice, Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera and Warsaw-based Nowy Teatr.

Polish National Opera, Teatr Wielki

The Polish National Opera is Poland’s largest cultural institution with strategic importance for Polish culture. Its venue, Teatr Wielki (‘Grand Theatre’), is the largest theatre in Poland and one of the biggest performing arts venues in the world. It has been at the centre of opera and ballet history for over 170. Situated in the very heart of the Polish capital, it was originally erected in the 19th century. Destroyed during World War II, the opera house reopened in 1965, becoming one of the most opulent and best-equipped theatres in Europe.

The opera house is helmed by Waldemar Dąbrowski, an award-winning arts administrator and a former Polish minister of culture who in the course of his career has founded theatre companies, orchestras, cultural institutions, and is now a member of the Board of Opera Europa. The opera house’s artistic director is Mariusz Treliński, a world-class opera director and winner of the 2018 International Opera Award. Leading the Polish National Ballet is Krzysztof Pastor, a choreographer whose pieces have been staged across the world by companies such as the Dutch National Ballet, the Washington Ballet, or the Israel Ballet.

Both the Polish National Opera and the Polish National Ballet can boast a robust cooperation with international partners. Their productions have been staged on almost every continent at such venues as the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan, English National Opera in London, and the festivals in Salzburg, Bregenz and Baden- Baden.

Teatr Wielki is not only home to Poland’s top opera and ballet company. It also houses Poland’s first theatre museum, a leading contemporary art gallery, and an opera studio for aspiring singers and répétiteurs. Every year, the venue welcomes a range of festivals, special galas and events. For the Polish National Opera, partnering with business is an opportunity to create a space where the most valuable creative phenomena and top-tier artistic achievements can come together.

BMW Art Club
EVOLVER – VR
October 12th, 2023 - December 10th, 2023