As any fan of proper immersive experiences will no doubt already know, it doesn’t get much better than the ‘Lumiéres’ series. Decking out fascinating venues in a properly mesmerising display of lights and sounds, Lumiéres exhibitions are a cut above other immersive experiences – which can often otherwise seem like they’re just cheaply cashing in on a craze.
And now another dazzling new Lumiéres exhibition has just launched. Called the Phoenix des Lumiéres (Phoenix of Lights), it’s in the east German city of Dortmund – and it looks just as spectacular as any of the best Lumiéres experiences. It gets its name from being housed in an old factory called Phoenix West.
So what’s on show? Well, the Phoenix des Lumiéres currently has three exhibitions. The first one is all about Austrian painter Gustav Klimt – who has already been the subject of many immersive experiences – and is called ‘Gold in Motion’. It’s designed to highlight the use of bright goldleaf in Klimt’s work.
Another exhibition concerns Austrian painter, architect and visual artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser and is called ‘In the Wake of the Vienna Succession’. Hundertwasser was famous for his huge, curved lines – needless to say, his stuff is pretty well-suited to the Lumiéres treatment.
The final exhibit, ‘Journey’, was created by Turkish collective Nohlab and shows how photons travel through the eye. As always with Lumiéres projects, all these exhibitions will be meticulously curated experiences with high production values and music purposely composed for the show. Here are a few pics of the venue and its exhibitions.
Lumiéres exhibitions are designed by French company Culturespaces. At the moment, it also runs several other celebrated immersive spaces, notably in Paris (Atelier des Lumiéres), Bordeaux (Bassins des Lumières), Provence (Carrières des Lumières), Amsterdam (Fabrique des Lumières), New York (Hall des Lumières) and Seoul (Théâtre des Lumières). Another new one called the Port des Lumières is set to open in Hamburg in 2024.
The Phoenix des Lumiéres opened on January 28 and it’s set to run for the entirety of 2023. General entry tickets cost €15 (£13, $16) – find out more and buy tickets here.
Did you see that these are the exhibitions around the world that we think are worth travelling for in 2023?
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