Immersive art museum Hall des Lumières officially opens at landmarked Lower Manhattan bank hall
All images courtesy of Mark Zhelezoglo for Hall des Lumières
A new permanent museum dedicated to immersive digital art experiences opened inside a New York City landmark on Wednesday. Located in Tribeca at 49 Chambers Street, Hall des Lumières sits within the former Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, which was constructed in 1911 in a Beaux-Arts architectural style. The museum’s inaugural exhibition, Gustav Klimt: Gold in Motion, will feature animated projections of paintings by the famous Viennese painter across the former bank hall’s marble walls and columns. The exhibition also includes a presentation about the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank’s history and original design.
Developed by French museum operator Culturespaces and IMG, the immersive experience is located within the grand, ornate hall on the former bank’s vault level. Hall des Lumières features 30-foot-high animated images of famous paintings that are synchronized to an original soundtrack and mapped to the space’s walls, columns, glass skylights, and coved ceilings.
The Gold in Motion program will bring guests through Gustav Klimt’s legendary art career and shed light on Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an artist who was heavily inspired by Klimt.
Also on display will be 5 Movements, a contemporary piece by Nohlab that will “guide visitors to explore space and time through a performer’s five different types of body movement,” according to a press release.
Nohlab will also be displaying Recording Entropia, another contemporary piece that invites guests to “explore the vast possibilities of the human mind.”
The Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank was designated as a city landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) in 1975, praising the structure for its “style and elegance” as a public space. Culturespaces received approval from the LPC in order to transform the vault space into an art center.
Tickets start at $30 for adults and $15 for children ages five to 16. Admission for guests under the age of five is free.
More information on Gustav Klimt: Gold in Motion and future events can be found here.
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