NY Opens Immersive Digital Art Show

New York is hosting an immersive digital art exhibit with works by Gustav Klimt and others TIMOTHY A. CLARY AFP
New York is hosting an immersive digital art exhibit with works by Gustav Klimt and others TIMOTHY A. CLARY AFP
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NY Opens Immersive Digital Art Show

New York is hosting an immersive digital art exhibit with works by Gustav Klimt and others TIMOTHY A. CLARY AFP
New York is hosting an immersive digital art exhibit with works by Gustav Klimt and others TIMOTHY A. CLARY AFP

Art lovers in New York can now enjoy an immersive digital experience with works by Gustav Klimt projected onto the walls and floors of a building that used to be a bank.

The goal, its creators say, is to bring young people and others into a 21st-century museum.

The exhibit, called "Hall des Lumières," opens Wednesday in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood.

It follows similar shows called "Atelier des Lumières" in Paris and "Infinity des Lumières" in Dubai.

The shows are the work of a French company called Culturespaces, which is partnering in New York with events company IMG.

Culturespaces boss Bruno Monnier said these digital art shows around the world cater to youths and anybody else who does not go to traditional venues like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

This nine-month show features works by Klimt and another Austrian, Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

Classical and electronic music plays as their works are projected onto every conceivable surface inside the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, an early 20th-century building in the Beaux-Arts style.

"I do think it’s a fantastic way to introduce people to art and I think they are very complementary to great museums and art galleries of New York and in many cities around the world," said Stephen Flint Wood, Managing Director of IMG.

"You can come here in this atmosphere and be completely immersed and then go to museums and art galleries to see some paintings for yourself," he told AFP.



From Homeless to Tour Guide: Londoners Lead the Way Round the Streets They Know Best 

Unseen Tours guide Stefan Gordon, leads a tour around Canary Wharf's West India Quay in London, Britain, June 10, 2025. (Reuters)
Unseen Tours guide Stefan Gordon, leads a tour around Canary Wharf's West India Quay in London, Britain, June 10, 2025. (Reuters)
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From Homeless to Tour Guide: Londoners Lead the Way Round the Streets They Know Best 

Unseen Tours guide Stefan Gordon, leads a tour around Canary Wharf's West India Quay in London, Britain, June 10, 2025. (Reuters)
Unseen Tours guide Stefan Gordon, leads a tour around Canary Wharf's West India Quay in London, Britain, June 10, 2025. (Reuters)

Stefan Gordon spent three years in a homeless shelter in London after a family rift left him without a roof over his head. Now he is using his past experience to tell the often hidden story of one of the capital's wealthiest areas.

Gordon, 31, is one of several formerly homeless people trained by Unseen Tours to lead guided walks in different London neighborhoods. The charity's aim is to reduce the stigma around homelessness and value people's potential.

"My view of homelessness is a person without a home... (but) just because they don't have a home, we can still do stuff," Gordon told Reuters as he led a group tour of Canary Wharf and West India Quay in east London.

In the 18th and 19th centuries the area, now the capital's business hub, was home to a large dock complex built to receive products such as sugar from the Caribbean, where enslaved people were forced to work on plantations.

The docks were created by and for merchants, but many of those who worked there were often badly paid and lived in poor conditions, something Gordon says he can relate to.

"Lots of people used to sleep in lodging houses and the hostel where I slept was an emergency lodging house so I kind of related a lot to that," Gordon said. "It was very, very tough back then... It's still tough now."

Gordon, who has autism, is now living with his mother and has been a guide since February. He gets paid 60% of the value of each tour ticket while the remainder is reinvested into Unseen Tours to cover operating costs and train new guides.

Unseen Tours' director of communication, Charlotte Cassedanne, said the guides, with help from the organization, research and design their own tours, and can incorporate their personal stories into their walks if they wish to do so.

They have been running for more than a decade, and 30,000 visitors have taken part in their tours. With six guides trained so far, Unseen Tours is currently fundraising to train three more.

"When you experience homelessness, you become sort of less than human... People ignore you daily... Putting them at the center of the storytelling really helps them have agency again," Cassedanne said.