Da Vinci Genius to launch in Florida

The multi award-winning Da Vinci: An Immersive Art Experience show that has achieved critical acclaim in Europe (Berlin and Amsterdam) is now coming to America, launching in Florida, on 2^nd November, 2024.

It will be the first of its kind full length narrated blockbuster immersive art show with its own soundtrack to open in the USA, bringing da Vinci’s life story and artistic genius to a new audience. It combines cutting-edge AI technology to provide an unique sound and vision entertainment and educational experience for all ages.

The museum-quality digital exhibition is a pathbreaking show that aims to revolutionise the way that American audiences experience iconic culture and the world’s great artists and historical figures. Artists whose works can normally only be accessed in major international galleries and multi-million pound ‘once-in-a-generation’ museum shows, can now become accessible to a much wider and younger audience.

The exhibition will open on 2^nd November at the South Florida PBS Studios in Boynton Beach, Florida and runs until April 2025. Taking visitors on a unique journey into the visionary universe of artist Leonardo da Vinci, the pioneering digital show – lasting approximately an hour – shows how his ideas about art, space, science and natural world are relevant today.

Following the international success of acclaimed immersive art shows featuring Monet, Van Gogh and David Hockney, this new interactive show about the life of Leonardo da Vinci plans to tour America over the next few years after debuting in South Florida. The winner of two prestigious immersive video art industry awards, sets a new global standard for this exciting new cultural exhibition genre.

 

“Visitors can now immerse themselves in the visionary mind and life of one of the greatest artists of the last millennium’ says producer Bert van der Ryd, managing director of Phoenix Immersive, the production company behind the show. “This immersive show, designed for all ages, combines incredible technology with a robust educational aspect, offering a fresh and captivating exploration of da Vinci's life and the power of his ideas in today’s world.”

Visitors can experience such masterpieces as the Mona Lisa, Vitruvian Man, and The Last Supper, along with his innovative military engineering and architectural designs, futuristic inventions (including a protype helicopter), equine drawings and his famous notebooks (over 20,000 words) which contain diagrams, sketches, personal observations, providing insight into how his unique mind saw the world. The narrative covers his remarkable life story (1452-1519) at the very heart of the Italian Renaissance working for such patrons as the Duke of Milan, various Popes and King Francis I of France.

“The show serves as a reminder that many of the global challenges we face today were foreseen more than 500 years ago by da Vinci’s profoundly gifted mind” adds Scott Rudmann, executive producer and managing director of Nectar Capital, the London based private equity company backing the show’s global license roll-out as a cultural educational blockbuster.

Dolores Fernandez Alonso, president and CEO of South Florida PBS says: “We are thrilled to bring the Da Vinci: An Immersive Art Experience to South Florida PBS Studios. This extraordinary exhibit offers our community an unique opportunity to experience the brilliance of Leonardo da Vinci in a way never seen. By combining cutting-edge technology with historical artistry, we're not just showcasing da Vinci's work – we're inviting our audience to step into his ingenious mind. This immersive journey aligns perfectly with our mission to educate, inspire, and entertain, and we believe it will captivate visitors of all ages, fostering a deeper appreciation for art, science, and innovation".

The show is also uniquely educational, with South Florida PBS highlighting how it integrates “an educational curriculum for elementary, middle, and high school students, making it a must-visit for learners of all ages,” continued Fernandez Alonso.

Adds van der Ryd: “Nowadays, the younger generation don’t tend to go to museums,” he says. “Their interest is more on social media. This show excites the young because they can actually chat with the Mona Lisa using AI technology. So, I hope this will help to get them more interested in art and culture, which can only be a good thing.”

Originally created in 2022 by the award-winning Berlin-based video art design studio, flora&faunavisions, the show has its own brilliant 360-degree soundscape, with music composed and curated by British Grammy Award nominee SASHA, veteran DJ and pioneer of electronic music who has performed at festivals all over the world, from Glastonbury to Coachella.

 

Leigh Sachwitz, founder and creative director of flora&faunavisions, adds: “Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci, the show explores technology, storytelling, light, language, music, and interactive playfulness, delivering an impressive and enlightening experience. We are excited for Florida audiences to experience the genius of this acclaimed figure.”

In addition to being a brilliant painter, Leonardo was also a scientist, botanist and prophetic environmentalist. “Even over 500 years ago, he was already talking about how we need to protect our planet and how nature is the main force of life and that if we don’t look after it, we’re going to be in real trouble,” says Sachwitz.

For the last century, those wanting to experience Leonardo da Vinci's extraordinary achievements in painting, music, sculpture, engineering, ecology, astronomy, and futuristic predictions have largely been limited to books and galleries, often in Europe. American visitors will get to personally enter and explore Leonardo’s visionary universe and experience his groundbreaking ideas and talents in entirely new and innovative way. Thanks to AI technology, for example, visitors are encouraged to ‘touch and feel’ the art on the walls as well as have ‘chats’ with the paintings.

Art masterpieces that rarely, if ever, leave museums like the Louvre in Paris or the Uffizi in Florence, can now be rediscovered in a uniquely captivating, contemporary and accessible manner, revolutionizing the way that audiences enjoy culture.

“Licensee exhibitors around America and the globe can create their own show without having to ship and loan expensive paintings around the world,” adds Rudmann. ‘We bring alive the story of Leonardo and his multiple layers of genius and make it relevant for young people in today’s audience.”

The immersive experience extends to Da Vinci's exploration of the natural world, engineering marvels, and ventures into space, creating a truly interactive and engaging art space. Through interactive and floor-to-ceiling digital projections, spatial audio immersion visitors can see the contemporary world through da Vinci's eyes.

Da Vinci: An Immersive Art Experience, produced by Phoenix Immersive from London, is a groundbreaking show of virtual projection that is set to enlighten and educate and dazzle audiences and visitors across America – from art lovers to school classes, college students to tourists and their families.

The South Florida PBS show also comes with a wide range of branded educational merchandise as well as the official soundtrack CD by SASHA.

For more press information and opening dates and times, please visit https://www.southfloridapbs.org/genius/.