PAD Project

A new exhibition area devoted to Pop Art will be opening soon on SL.

By raising daily commonplace reality to the artistic dimension Pop Art accomplishes its transfiguration: it sheds light on what is closer yet often invisible to us and through such an artistic process it penetrates the meaning of life in mass society. The identity of form and content in the advertised product undergoes a process of estrangement and reversal. In pop works of art the sexy element of images becomes disquieting, euphoria has a shade of melancholy, glamour and make-up are covered with a dim layer, precision is turned into provocation.

Pop Art has widened two key concepts of modern times, “double” and “dislocation”, and has highlighted mass media as the incessant producers of the double of everything. Most of our experience is the experience of the “other” reality, the one that the media have arranged for us and communicate to us. These basic features of Pop Art seem especially fit to be appreciated in a virtual world like Second Life, that celebrates the concepts of the double and of dislocation into another reality.

More than twenty Pop artists, ranging from Andy Warhol to Tom Wesselmann, from Roy Lichtenstein to Jasper Johns and Richard Hamilton -just to mention a few- and a collection of 160 works, some reproduced in3D, are visible at the Pop Art Display. We did not choose the name casually: we prefer “display” to the more traditional “museum” because what we wanted to create is not simply a showcase for art works, but rather a scene where they could be staged. Pop Art was born from a real connection between art and life and had its roots in underground culture, therefore it was able to catch the spirit of its time, the changing lifestyles, moral standards and social roles.

Consequently, many installations are conceived as movie sets that allow avatars to enter the work of art and act as one of its characters. The immersive environments we have created aim to involve avatars in the spirit of the works and make them more enjoyable.

The whole display offers an extensive view of Pop Art both in Europe and in the USA in its many forms, and supplies relevant knowledge of its evolution, which marked the passage from modern to post-modern times.

The info apparatus includes artists’ biographies and commentary on works to support visitors’ knowledge and appreciation.

Last but not least, we have re-created Andy Warhol’s legendary Silver Factory as a space for venues and art experiences in SL.

We are also planning scheduled guided tours of the PAD.