This is the first exhibition on Fortnite: the American artist Kaws installed his pop canvases and his colorful sculptures on Tuesday at the Serpentine Gallery, but also in the virtual replica of the London museum within the video game with hundreds of millions of followers. .
Amid the frosty lawns of Hyde Park in central London, onlookers aim their phones at the roof of the Serpentine Gallery.
Do they take a picture of the building with red bricks and white columns? Not at all ! Thanks to their laptop, they show in augmented reality a large sculpture of a blue man sitting on the roof, invisible to the naked eye.
From the entrance, the sculpture of the New Yorker Kaws sets the tone: here virtual and reality intertwine throughout the exhibition “Kaws: New fiction”.
It is indeed composed of “three layers”, explains to AFP the artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist. “There’s the physical exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery with paintings and sculptures, there’s the augmented reality elements and there’s the Serpentine Gallery on Fortnite,” one of the most popular video games in the world.
For one week, the 400 million followers of the Epic Games phenomenon have access to a completely faithful replica of the museum in the game, to walk around with their avatar and contemplate the works.
Epic Game has already collaborated in a similar way with internationally renowned singers who have come to give concerts in the game. “But this is the first time that Fortnite has collaborated with the visual arts, with a public gallery”, welcomes Mr. Obrist. .
He considers it “very different” to see an exhibition in a game or physically, but considers these experiences “complementary”: many visitors are not familiar with the world of video games and could therefore be interested in it, and vice versa -versa for gamers.
” Comfort zone “
“For us, it’s about reaching very different audiences”, creating “a transgenerational dialogue”, adds the artistic director.
Indeed, “the average age of Fortnite players”, very popular among teenagers, “is much younger than that of an average visitor to a museum”, underlines Hans Ulrich Obrist, who “hopes that a whole new generation will thus come to the gallery”.
Especially since this project will “reach an audience that is probably ten times larger than the Venice Biennale,” says exhibition curator Daniel Birnbaum.
For the artist too, Brian Donnelly, whose real name is, the interest lies in making his works more accessible. “What interests me is knowing that my work can be seen by a child in India as in London,” the 47-year-old painter and sculptor told AFP. ” It’s fascinating “.
“Such a large community will suddenly be able to go to the museum, to see these paintings and sculptures”, welcomes the ex-graffiti artist who has become a plastic artist, “I think that for some children, it will be the first time that they will feel at home. ease, in their comfort zone, inside an exhibition”.
“No shooting”
Its stylized skull characters, which have already toured the world with giant installations or derivative products, will be able to seduce young Fortnite audiences with their pop, accessible and colorful side.
Kaws, whose second collaboration with Fortnite, explains that his works will be exhibited in the “creative hub”, a specific mode of the game far from the games where players compete to be the last survivor.
“There will be no shooting in the exhibition”, he jokes, praising a community “different from what we think”.
As to whether adrenaline-loving players will really stop to contemplate his works in the game, “it’s hard to say”, concedes the artist, without being defeatist: “If you bring an eleven-year-old child into a traditional museum, you don’t know if he’s going to look at the works. It is no different”.