“De Chirico’s metaphysics flirts with hypertechnological works of art” - L’Espresso

“A laboratory of the future” - Associated Press

“An original and engaging combination” - Touring Club

“An intense, diachronic encounter in which you could end up contemplating a Baroque altarpiece by Carlo Moratti and then admire the work of a digital native” - Repubblica

The exhibition presents a broad creative reflection on the concept of the Metaverse through a series of multisensory and multimedia experiences created by the genius of contemporary artists, in dialogue with ‘material’ works by historical or living artists who, from the Baroque to the present day, have created other worlds with unlimited mental spaces. The visitor is thus immersed in a phygital dimension (the union of the physical and the digital), which is something we should expect in everyday life in the near future.

The word Metaverse first appeared in Neal Stephenson's 1992 post-cyberpunk science fiction novel Snow Crash. For the renowned author, the Metaverse could be seen as a single, vast technological incantation in which "there are no physical laws to worry about, no limits to acceleration, no air friction". In the novel, a dystopian climate emerges represented by a society addicted to the digital world, in which the Metaverse presents itself as “the only refuge and opportunity for millions of people to realise themselves”. And it is precisely in literature and film, as well as in certain visionary art, computer graphics and video games, that the roots of virtual realities are to be sought. To date, the Metaverse is still in the early stages of full definition and takes various forms in which anyone can immerse themselves in an interconnected multimedia space. The latest frontier of the Metaverse belongs to the world of social media and virtual spaces in VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality) and based on blockchain technology, a decentralised and encrypted data storage system. In these worlds, each of us can embody as our digital twin (avatar) or transform into the one we have always wanted. 

The Metaverse is not governed by terrestrial physics, and any object within it can be imported from the real world or created from scratch by our imaginations. Artificial intelligence also plays a fundamental role in the development of these realities, where humans, nature and technology can find a new, hybrid and harmonious synergy towards a 'digital humanism'.