It’s always a treat to experience art in real life, but sometimes navigating a crowded museum to catch a glimpse of an artwork behind a throng of visitors can leave us wanting more. Now a new initiative by Outset and Visualogical brings together 15 leading British arts institutions, including Tate, National Galleries of Scotland and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and is seizing the digital opportunities offered by the pandemic to create a very different, complementary viewing experience for gallery-goers around the world.
A non-profit platform for virtual exhibitions that combines a new micro-philanthropic model with cutting-edge technology, theVov aims to make culture accessible to a truly global audience thanks to a series of digital spaces hosted by tech specialist Vortic Art. Some of these spaces are exact replicas of real locations, some are otherworldly galleries, but all the bespoke digital extensions will be able to host live and pre-recorded talks and tours.
TheVov’s virtual presentation of Chris Burden’s 14 Magnolia Doubles as part of the South London Gallery’s digital revival of his solo exhibition (2006)
TheVov launched on 19 April with a talk by curator Ralph Rugoff, who led viewers through a virtual rehanging of Andreas Gursky’s 2018 retrospective at London’s Hayward Gallery. Thanks to the new platform, viewers can not only visit the online exhibition, taking in Gursky’s unique way of framing the world in their own time, but also have access to Rugoff’s presentation and essay as well as behind-the-scenes images, articles and reviews.
Also kick-starting the ten-week programme of theVov’s first season are two other exhibitions, the 2019 ‘Tony Cokes: If UR Reading This It’s 2 Late: Vol 1’ from Goldsmiths CCA; and the 2020 ‘Pacita Abad: Life in the Margins’ from Spike Island. With three seminal shows launching every Monday, future releases include the return of Chris Burden’s iconic 14 Magnolia Doubles to South London Gallery after 15 years; Yinka Shonibare’s open-air installation at Yorkshire Sculpture Park from 2013; and Lisa Brice’s 2018 ‘Art Now’ exhibition at Tate Britain.
RELATED STORY
TheVov’s virtual presentation of Shannon Bono’s Untitled (Mangbetu) and Sian Fan’s Seeping Out Skybox, as part of Sarabande’s digital exhibition ‘Corpus Mentis’, (2021)
Supported by the Outset Contemporary Art Fund, theVov also offers an innovative social interface by art-science collective Visualogical and the option of a new funding stream for the art world, which has been so impacted by the various lockdowns. ‘If harnessed sensitively and ethically, online experiences can not only complement the physical art world but actually further enrich it,’ say Visualogical’s co-founders Natasha Hersham and Victoria Westerman. Users are invited to donate when viewing the online galleries, with funds raised being distributed equally between the participating institutions.
With the country’s top curators and experts sharing their knowledge, and unprecedented virtual access to important contemporary artworks, theVov is set to redefine our gallery-viewing experience, and help ‘the physical and digital realms coexist symbiotically side-by-side, making the arts more accessible globally than ever’.
INFORMATION
-
For her first Rome retrospective, artist Anthea Hamilton reconsiders OthelloIn ‘Soft You,’ now on view at Fondazione Memmo, sensuality and severity coexist.
-
Want to be a Venice pavilion commissioner? Bring ideas – and your RolodexThe impressive showings of the USA's Venice pavilion in the Giardini belie the ambitious fundraising efforts that underpin them. Past and present curators tell us how it works
-
Ma Yansong's latest project is anchored by a gleaming stainless steel 'tornado'The new Fenix museum in Rotterdam, devoted to migration, marks MAD's first European cultural project.
-
Cassi Namoda is rethinking stained-glass windows at Turner Contemporary in MargateThe artist drew from an eclectic range of references when considering the traditional medium for a Turner Contemporary window overlooking the beach – she tells us more
-
Meet the Turner Prize 2025 shortlisted artistsNnena Kalu, Rene Matić, Mohammed Sami and Zadie Xa are in the running for the Turner Prize 2025 – here they are with their work
-
The art of the textile label: how British mill-made cloth sold itself to Indian buyersAn exhibition of Indo-British textile labels at the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP) in Bengaluru is a journey through colonial desire and the design of mass persuasion
-
From counter-culture to Northern Soul, these photos chart an intimate history of working-class Britain‘After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 – 2024’ is at Edinburgh gallery Stills
-
Remembering Oliviero Toscani, fashion photographer and author of provocative Benetton campaignsBest known for the controversial adverts he shot for the Italian fashion brand, former art director Oliviero Toscani has died, aged 82
-
Distracting decadence: how Silvio Berlusconi’s legacy shaped Italian TVStefano De Luigi's monograph Televisiva examines how Berlusconi’s empire reshaped Italian TV, and subsequently infiltrated the premiership
-
David Hockney plays with our perception of fine art in Palm Springs'David Hockney: Perspective Should Be Reversed' is currently on show at the Palm Springs Art Museum
-
Surrealism as feminist resistance: artists against fascism in Leeds‘The Traumatic Surreal’ at the Henry Moore Institute, unpacks the generational trauma left by Nazism for postwar women
