Travelers can combine a city trip to Munich with a special art experience until February 10: From December 15, the immersive experience “Viva Frida Kahlo” about the painter Kahlo (1907-1954) will open in Utopia, the former riding hall in Schwabing.
Immersive means immersing yourself and that is exactly what visitors experience with this new type of art show. The floor and walls of the exhibition hall are turned into a screen with high-performance projectors, and Kahlo’s images come to life on walls that are up to 34 meters long and ten meters high.
Visitors are literally drawn into Frida Kahlo’s world. You experience the 1920s to the 1940s and immerse yourself in the colorful paintings and self-portraits as evidence of a life full of grace, pain and an unbroken will to live. The visitors of the exhibition move freely in the room and enter the “Casa Azul”, where the young Frida Kahlo, tied to her bed after a serious accident, began to paint. Original quotes by the artist and a soundtrack composed especially for the exhibition can also be heard. “Viva Frida Kahlo” sees itself as a mixture of light art, museum visits and the latest technology. An event not only for fans of Frida Kahlo, but for everyone who wants to experience art in this new multimedia form, interact with it and be carried away from everyday life.
There is hardly anyone who does not have the self-portraits of the Mexican artist in mind by her name. Her head adorns not only her own pictures with a wreath of flowers and a monobrow, but also numerous souvenirs, T-shirts and accessories. Kahlo was revered during her lifetime by her Surrealist peers, including Picasso and Kandinsky. Today, her paintings are worth millions, and Madonna (64) is said to own at least two paintings by the painter.
In addition to her talent, Kahlo is also known as an “icon of feminism” who never gave up: throughout her life she declared war on social conventions. For the family portrait she appeared as a boy. She demanded the same rights from her husband, the artist Diego Rivera, because of his numerous affairs. And the iron bar that pierced her in an accident on a tram and tied her to the bed for months made the then 18-year-old paint. The self-portraits for which she is world famous today were created with a mirror above her bed.
Her impressive life story has also inspired Hollywood: In 2002, Salma Hayek (56) played the leading role in the autobiographical film “Frida”. The film by Julie Taymor (69) was nominated for six Oscars and was able to take two home.
