New 'Dalí Alive 360' exhibit tells story of famous artist
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Dalí Museum will be debuting its latest exhibit, "Dalí Alive 360," later than expected.
The exhibit was set to open Saturday, but the museum's AC Unit in the Dalí Dome broke, which will impact the original opening date. There is no set date for when the museum expects to open the exhibit, and organizers said those who have purchased tickets will be refunded.
"Dalí Alive 360" is similar to the Van Gogh Alive experience, but this exhibit tells the story of the artist Salvador Dalí using 360 degrees of light, visuals – including the artist’s own work – and sound.
The Dalí Dome, which the exhibit is housed in, took about a year to build, Hank Hine, the Dalí’s director, said.
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"We wanted to create something that was permanent, hurricane proof, beautiful and provocative," he said. "Having an image of Dalí’s disintegration of the persistence of memory, one of his most famous paintings, which is in our collection on the outside [of the dome], seemed the appropriate thing to do."
"We use wonderful music. We use images. We animate them, and we tell the story of Dalí’s life from the time he was in Spain originally, moving to Paris, moving to New York, and then completing this sort of spiritual journey in Spain," Hine said.
He said the shape of the dome, like the Dalí’s main building, pays tribute to the Dalí’s theater museum in Spain.
"The reason we made this exhibition was to fill in some of those questions about who Dalí was. That may not be completely clear from his art and to bring technology to our art experience, because interactive technology is our brand," Hine said.
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He said the idea for the exhibit was also prompted because of the time it was taking to get the expansion on the southwest side of the main building approved, and they wanted to create this type of immersive experience in the meantime. Voters approved the expansion, that includes using some city property, in November.
The Dalí staff worked with an Australian company and a company in Texas to create the exhibit.
"My favorite part is some of the imagination of the animators in which things move. Ants crawl across the floor. Watches seem to come from outer space and revolve through the galleries and on the floor," Hine said.
"We hope that the effect of coming to this will be a sense of joy and awe at what the human imagination can create, and that people leave with a sense of their own possibilities to fulfill themselves," he said.
The Dalí’s staff said those susceptible to vertigo, vision sensitivity or epilepsy should be advised that there are a lot of simulations, varying light levels and no windows.