A metaverse exhibition based on an art intervention in the Mleiha Desert
Dubai, UAE, March 2023 – On April 3 the Inloco Gallery will launch “Useless Palace” — a virtual exhibition project. Audiences from around the world will be able to experience the works of ten international artists that were created as a result of an expedition to the Mleiha desert, and then walk through the desert on their own as treasure hunters in search of artifacts.
The online exhibition “Useless Palace”, developed by an interactive technology studio hptx on the Spatial platform, offers an opportunity to reflect on the essence of nomadism and the eternal search for home. This project recreates the site of an abandoned village where a group of artists stayed to create art inspired by the desert and the discovered artifacts. The digital project also comprises the carefully crafted online version of the “Useless Palace” exhibition that was hosted in the physical space of the Inloco Gallery in March and became the report on this international artistic intervention.
The exhibition will open in the Spatial metaverse on April 3 by 8 pm and at 8:30 pm there will be a screening of the documentary “Useless Palace” (the location is the garage in the desert). To visit the exhibition, you will need to sign up on the Spatial website, which is easy, and then choose your avatar. The gallery can be accessed via any computer or smartphone, as well as a VR headset. The exhibition space consists of three areas.
The first exhibition hall is the gallery, where you can see more than 25 paintings, sculptures, and art objects created by artists based on their journey to the desert. Some of the pieces are animated and can be brought to life by standing in a certain spot in the virtual space. You can invite your friends to the hall, arrange meetings and discuss the exhibition online together directly in the virtual space.
The second area is the desert. Guests will be able to walk through the abandoned village listening to the sound of the wind, stumble upon a tumbleweed or even end up in a sandstorm. From anywhere in the world, it will be possible to see where the artists created their pieces, how they transformed the abandoned houses and the swimming pool left in the middle of the village, and what art was created from the discovered objects. The third spot is the construction zone, where the documentary “Useless Palace” will premiere online (keep an eye out for the premiere date on the website), followed by presentations and meetups with the artists.
The participating artists are: Filippo Minelli / Lokher / Neda Salmanpour / Anton Selone / Dusto / Maxim Ima / Turben / Xeato / Ivan Ilinskii / Sergei Kk
Anastasia Nesterova, producer of the virtual exhibition project Useless Palace:
We are growing the seeds (impulse) of sincere rebellious spirit of truthfulness through the street art. The main goal is to build a safe space for the dialog, some kind a bridge between multicultural art forms, between digital and physical, between sites and humans, between white box gallery and true vibe of desert. We inviting you to enter the multidimensional site-specific immersive art experience to reconnect with yourself and meet Inloco artists.
Maria Kobyakova, creative producer of the interactive studio hptx:
You don’t have to buy a ticket to Dubai to visit an exhibition in the middle of the desert. Emerging technology helps bring contemporary art closer to the audience. The intention of our studio’s work was to virtually reproduce the conditions in which the artists’ pieces were created. We scanned some of the works, created animations for various pieces, thus elaborating on the artists’ ideas, incorporated gaming mechanics, and finally put everything on the Spatial platform, which made it possible for anyone to visit the gallery.
About The Exhibition:
The INLOCO Pop-up Gallery hosted the exhibition “Useless Palace” until March 30, which is a project based on the artistic intervention of an international group of artists whose work draws on street art. During their trip to the Mleiha archeological center in Sharjah, each of the ten artists picked a location in one of the spots of the abandoned village that was close to their hearts, and as a result created the work that can be seen in the exhibition.
About Spatial:
It is a platform that enables users to arrange meetings in augmented or virtual reality. The platform is free and open to users from anywhere in the world. It is available on desktop browsers, as well as on Android and iOS.
