NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Artsy in collaboration with UBS today released the first film in a multi-part 360° documentary series “Inside the Biennale” exploring the 57th Venice Biennale. In the spirit of increased access to the world’s premier art exhibition, these films will build on the success of Artsy and UBS’s first collaboration, an 11-part series on the 2015 Venice Biennale, providing a global audience an insider’s glimpse of the Biennale’s most engaging art, personalities, and performances.
Featuring luminary artists and curators, including Cecilia Alemani, Carol Bove, Dawn Kasper, Massimiliano Gioni, Christian Marclay, Francis Upritchard, Erwin Wurm, and more, the films will transport viewers from studios, galleries, and institutions around the world to the iconic city, delving deep into the Biennale buzz as Venice prepares for the exhibition’s opening. Filmed “in the round,” the films will provide viewers a unique, immersive view of the city and exhibition.
The first 360° film explores the story of the Venice Biennale through the perspectives of several artists and curators as they create artworks and prepare installations that will be on view at the Biennale’s national pavilions. Following today’s launch, additional films will be released on Artsy throughout the first months of the Biennale.
This is the fifth iteration of Artsy and UBS’s partnership, following collaborations on a series of films focused on the 2015 Venice Biennale; Year in Art editorial features from 2015 and 2016; and a four-part film series lifting the curtain on the art market, which debuted last year.
“We’re proud to be collaborating again with UBS, a partner that shares our dedication to providing greater access to the world’s most influential artists and exhibitions,” said Sebastian Cwilich, Artsy’s President and COO. “The Venice Biennale is a uniquely important cultural moment and we’re excited to share it with Artsy’s millions of monthly visitors in this cutting-edge new format.”
“Our latest collaboration with Artsy—the ‘Inside the Biennale,’ VR documentary series—reflects our shared commitment to making the dynamic world of contemporary art more accessible to a broader public by using state-of-the-art technology,” stated Johan Jervøe, Group Chief Marketing Officer, UBS. “These films help advance a deeper understanding of the art world in much the same way as we help our clients navigate complex challenges and opportunities in the financial world.”
Artsy commissioned virtual reality studio Scenic to direct the films, which will be viewable on both desktop and mobile, as well as through an enhanced viewing experience in virtual reality headsets. To accompany the films, Artsy tapped artists Erwin Wurm and Dawn Kasper to design limited-edition cardboard virtual reality viewers, which will be distributed in Venice.
To view the films go to https://www.artsy.net/venice-biennale/toward-venice.
ABOUT ARTSY
Artsy is the leading destination for exploring and collecting art from the world’s top galleries, museums, art fairs, and auction houses. Artsy partners directly with the most influential players in the art world, providing collectors and enthusiasts a central resource to learn about and purchase artwork from anywhere in the world. Powered by The Art Genome Project, a personalization system that maps the connections between artists and artworks, visitors to Artsy can browse art from the world’s leading museums, collect artworks from thousands of top galleries, explore international art fairs before they open to the public, bid in auctions from leading auction houses, and read about the art world in the world’s most-read art publication. Our mission is to make all the world’s art accessible to anyone with an internet connection.
UBS AND CONTEMPORARY ART
UBS’s long and substantial record of patronage in contemporary art enables clients and audiences to participate in the international conversation about art and the global art world through the firm’s global art platform. In addition to the UBS Art Collection, considered one of the world’s largest and most important corporate collections of contemporary art, UBS has an extensive roster of contemporary art programs that include the firm’s long-term support for the premier international Art Basel shows in Basel, Miami Beach and Hong Kong, for which UBS serves as global Lead Partner; the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; and a global exhibition tour of “WOMEN: New Portraits,” an exhibition of newly commissioned photographs by renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz.
These activities are complemented by a number of regional partnerships with fine art institutions including the Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland, Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Milan, the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg and the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. UBS also provides its clients with insight into the contemporary art world through the free art news app UBS Planet Art, collaborations with the Swiss Institute, and the online resource Artsy, as well as through the UBS Art Competence Center and UBS Arts Forum. For more information about UBS’s commitment to contemporary art, visit ubs.com/art.
ABOUT SCENIC
Scenic is a virtual reality content studio based in Brooklyn exploring new directions in non-fiction VR. Founded by filmmaker Gary Hustwit, the studio covers a wide range of topics in art, culture, design and music with cinematic VR and 360° video to push the boundaries of immersive storytelling. Scenic’s creative team includes acclaimed documentary filmmakers and visual artists, and the studio’s first batch of VR documentaries was recently released in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal and Google.
