The Hortensia Herrero Foundation is preparing an immersive art installation by Israeli designer and architect Ron Arad that will open its doors on June 4 at La Marina in Valencia. Ron Arad 720º is a proposal that unites art and technology through a monumental structure, called Curtain Call, which will host projections by prominent artists such as Mat Collishaw or Greenaway
The piece, designed by Ron Arad, is in the form of a circular curtain eight meters high. Composed of 5,600 silicone rods suspended from a ring eighteen meters in diameter, it allows images to be projected to be viewed from both inside and outside. The result is a multisensory and immersive 360-degree experience where the public becomes the creator and spectator of the artistic work.
Hortensia Herrero, promoter of this immersive art exhibition in Valencia, intends with this installation «to bring art closer to Valencians and visitors to the city, as we have always tried. After three sculpture exhibitions at the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències, last year we took the step towards a new concept with Julian Opie, where we mixed sculpture, drawing and audiovisual. This time, with this structure by Ron Arad, we go further with a purely beautiful audiovisual experience that will envelop the viewer and make them part of the work itself. We trust that you will enjoy it and the surroundings of La Marina will be a point of pilgrimage and a cultural reference in the city of Valencia during the months that it is underway.
Originally created for the London Roundhouse -an old railway depot converted into a performing arts venue- and after passing through Jerusalem and Singapore, the Hortensia Herrero Foundation brings this installation to La Marina, which will remain open to the public until August 28.
Ron Arad 720º is part of the official program of World Capital Valencia Design. Access to the immersive exhibition will be free. The screening hours will be from 9:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. from Sunday to Thursday (seven screenings) and from 9:30 p.m. to 02:00 a.m. from Friday to Saturday (nine screenings).
He is a renowned designer and architect born in Tel Aviv in 1951. After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Jerusalem, he moved to England where he enrolled in Architecture. He became known in the eighties when, looking for iron for a sculpture, he discovered the seats of a Rover car and turned them into the first recycled armchair, the iconic Rover chair. That chance was the beginning of a career that has made him one of the most famous designers on the planet.
In 1989 he founded his own studio together with Caroline Thorman and, a few years later, he presented the Bookworm flexible bookcase, one of his best-known pieces produced on an industrial scale by Kartell. He has been head of the Department of Design at the prestigious Royal College of Art in London and a professor at the Hochschule in Vienna. In 2011 he received the Medal for Excellence in Design at London Design Week and in 2013 he was elected Honorary Academician at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
He has exhibited in museums such as the MOMA in New York or the Center Pompidou in Paris, as well as designing pieces for firms such as VITRA, Kartell, Moroso, Driade, Fiam, Alessi, Cappellini, WMF, Magis and Cassine.
