These days, "celebrating the Chinese New Year at the museum" has become a popular trend during the Spring Festival holiday. On the Lantern Festival of the Year of the Dragon, many people are opting to soak in the rich cultural atmosphere of museums for a special festive experience.
Currently a hit at the National Museum of China, the "Splendor of China: An Immersive Experience of Cave Art" is a creative, refined, and immersive digital art experience. While accurately capturing the aesthetic concepts of Chinese cave art and respecting the prototypes of immovable cultural relics, the artists carefully selected essential elements from the Kizil Caves, Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, Maijishan Grottoes, Yungang Grottoes, and Longmen Grottoes for in-depth re-creation. They combined these with large-scale installations, algorithmic imagery, digital interaction, and other forms of digital art to create this exhibition. In contrast to traditional museum displays, it makes full use of the latest digital technology to create artistic expression scenarios, achieving multi-sensory immersive experiences of space and scenes. It's a classic combination of ancient cave art and modern digital art.
The "Splendor of China"'s new immersive approach has been embraced by visitors and has become one of the most popular exhibitions at the National Museum this year. Many young people who love traditional culture come to check it out wearing Hanfu, and many families immerse themselves in the interactive experience of digital cave art, which stimulates and satisfies children's curiosity and desire to explore. It's a real treat to witness!
During the Lantern Festival, the "Splendor of China" also presented a special New Year version for the audience. The full 20-minute digital presentation in the main immersive experience hall included more classic cave statues and mural themes. Over half of these scenes are rarely seen even when visiting the caves in person, as some relics have been lost overseas, while others are located in special caves that are not open to the public year-round. This makes the experience even more valuable.
Notably, many Spring Festival elements were added to the exhibition hall, allowing visitors to experience the rich New Year atmosphere while immersing themselves in digital cave art. For example, in the main immersive experience hall, viewers can see a pair of Vermilion Birds soaring out of the lotus flower, circling around, and wherever they go, there is a splendid scene of gold-leaf murals, slowly opening the journey of cave art. In the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes chapter, classic dragon patterns and precious flower patterns from the Dunhuang murals have been added and presented in the immersive space, glittering with gold and lifelike, allowing the audience to dream back to the Tang Dynasty. In the last scene of the main hall immersive experience, a stylized artistic representation of the night view of the West Hill of the Longmen Grottoes is also presented to the audience, allowing visitors to experience a Lantern Festival from the Longmen Grottoes without leaving Beijing. Talk about a memorable night!
"Splendor of China" is not just an immersive experience, but also an epitome of the innovation and change in contemporary art presentation forms. The museum is no longer a simple historical exhibition hall, but a dynamic and creative cultural exchange platform, showcasing the diverse, open, innovative, and inclusive excellent traditional Chinese culture to the audience. It's a must-see!
