Immersive experiences in Madrid: the sensory side of culture

Immersive experiences have been taking over the cultural scene. It is no longer enough to see an exhibition and leave with some newly acquired knowledge, now they have to be a journey for the senses as well. It is the way to capture the attention of visitors who are now living the experience with their mobile phones in hand. He entertainment and culture come together in this new exhibition format that is here to stay.

Formula 1

One of the great immersive exhibitions of the season in Madrid is Formula 1®: The Exhibition. The visitors stop being simple spectators to become single-seaters that travel a circuit. Everything is taken care of in detail, from the ambient sound, designed to immerse us in a race, to the ground (like those black and white stripes on the ground so you don’t go off track) and going through the sky. Take, for example, the details on the ceiling in the Drive & Duels room.

For all those fans who would like to feel what it is like to be inside the Formula 1 car, there is a room within the exhibition that will allow you to experience it for a moment. It is a closed space, completely surrounded by screens, on which the a five-minute viewing focused on the sensory; the sounds, the lights, the most recognizable faces in the sport…

all accompanied by the graphs and statistics that engineers see of the teams while the races are taking place. It’s a little audiovisual gem designed so that for a second everyone can feel like they’ve been going at 350 km/h on some of the most iconic circuits in the world.

🗓️ Until June 4

📍 IFEMA (Avenida Partenón, 5)

The slave and the dove. Nude, 1883. Sorolla Museum, inv. 1484 copy || Image courtesy of the Sorolla Museum

National Heritage, the Sorolla Museum Foundation and the company Light Art Exhibitions are responsible for the exhibition that occupies the Genoa Halls of the Royal Palace in Madrid. The immersive exhibition is part of the activities to commemorate the centenary of the death of Sorolla (1863-1923), declared an Event of Exceptional Public Interest.

In them, the original works of Sorolla (some of them from private collections) are combined with digital recreations, elevating exposure to a sensory experience to which is added a virtual reality project.

🗓️ Until June 30th.

📍 Royal Palace (Calle de Bailén, s/n)

An immersive art gallery? A fabulous claim on social networks? The ultimate plan to relive your childhood? Ikono is all that and more: it is art, photography and experience.

It is a perfect experiential space to share with friends or family. The concept of Ikono, which orbits around four elements —color, light, textures and volumes—, expands into fifteen rooms, divided into three floors, which move inside dreamlike landscapes such as bamboo forests or fantasies instagrammable like ball pool.

🗓️ Permanent.

📍 Calle de Sánchez Bustillo, 7 (Atocha)

Image courtesy of Roberto Ruiz for the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum /
Wu Tsang. Of Whales.

The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza and TBA21 present an individual exhibition of Wu Tsang (1982) showing the video installation of whales (2022), a work in which the American artist evokes a psychedelic ocean environment generated from technologies of expanded reality.

Premiered at the last edition of the Venice Biennale, the piece reflects the research of the creator around the classic american novel Moby Dick (1851)by Hermann Melville. For his exhibition in Madrid, Tsang has adapted of whales to the architecture of the space, turning it into an immersive exhibition.

of whales it is conceived from the perspective of the whale and the crew of sailors aboard the Pequod and places Melville’s account in the context of mid-19th century maritime history.

🗓️ Until June 11.

📍 Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum

Editorial credit: El Greco 1973 / Shutterstock.com

The fascination for Egyptian civilization and culture are a constant that remains intact no matter how much time passes. 200 years have passed since the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone and 100 since the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, the Child Pharaoh, and Tutankhamen. And this immersive exhibition goes to show that interest in this culture continues to grow.

The exhibition, which is hosted by Madrid Artes Digitales (MAD) from Matadero, is planned as a trip to the past in which some of the enigmas surrounding this town will be deciphered, which includes, among other things, a Pharaoh’s own narrative of the journey to the underworld. In addition to the largest virtual reality room in Europe. Everything is little to address what ancient Egypt has contributed to history.

🗓️ Until the 7th of May.

📍 Madrid Digital Arts (Nave 16 of Matadero. Plaza de Legazpi, 8)

Editorial credit: Canal Isabel II Foundation

we are water is the temporary exhibition that the Canal de Isabel II Foundation has organized around water. Throughout 12 rooms, this free exhibition in Madrid explores the role of one of the creative elements of life on the planet, essential for the development of civilizations.

The tour has immersive facilities, such as a large LED tunnel, a large globe or a large-scale image how water is part of the human body. A tour that, at the same time, takes the visitor to walk through the pipes that carry water to the homes of Madrid.

🗓️ Until June 2023

📍 Canal de Isabel II Foundation (Paseo de la Castellana, 214)

Image courtesy of: © Museo Nacional del Prado / Diffuser in the hall of the olfactory exhibition “The essence of a painting”.

The Museo del Prado has joined the trend of creating sensory experiences linked to art in a discreet but permanent way.

In room 56 of the Villanueva Building, as announced in an Instagram video, you can see different portraits of Antonio Moro, “one of the main European portrait painters of the 16th century,” says Alejandro Vergara —head of Conservation of Flemish Painting and Schools of the North of the Prado National Museum. And now, accompanying these paintings, there is a diffuser that transports us through the smell to the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. The room is enveloped by the “fragrance of a amber scented glove, according to a 17th century recipe which includes resins, balsams, woods and flower essences, in the company of the fine leather chord »as the museum explains.

🗓️ Permanent.

📍 Madrid Digital Arts (Nave 16 of Matadero. Plaza de Legazpi, 8)

Museum of Illusion is an immersive experience in Madrid that will test the limits of the perception of the human brain. Optical and photographic illusions and amazing tricks take place on a tour in which you can touch, experiment, jump… and take a lot of photos of all the illusions that will leave you in awe.

🗓️ Permanent

📍 Calle del Dr. Cortezo, 8

8. Velazquez Tech Museum

Image provided by Velázquez Tech Museum

The Velázquez Tech Museum is entirely dedicated to one of the most iconic figures in Velázquez’s painting: the meninas. Its commitment as a multisensory museum and immersive experiences will make you not only a visitor, but also a participant active during the tour: you will be able to visit the Alcázar room where the painting was painted, design your own Meninas and even talk to Velázquez through holograms.

🗓️ Permanent.

📍 Velázquez Tech Museum (Calle de Atocha, 12)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *