THE UK’s first permanent immersive digital art gallery, The Reel Store, will open in Coventry on Friday 13th May 2022, becoming a permanent new visitor attraction in the heart of the city.
Tickets will go on public sale today (Friday 18th February) at 10am with priority booking from Tuesday 15th February for those who have earned enough COV Points in their Coventry City of Culture account.
Twenty per cent of tickets will be made available free of charge to Schools, Go CV+ cardholders and through exclusive offers from Coventry City of Culture Trust.
Following on from the huge popularity of immersive art spaces around the world, this new state-of-the-art space will feature innovative experiential art commissions and will be a prominent feature of the City of Culture programme in spring 2022.
The Reel Store is located in the former home of the Coventry Evening Telegraph newspaper, the main 800m2 exhibition space will house a large projection mapping canvas with multiple high quality video projectors and an immersive sound system.
The product of a long-term collaboration with NASA, this exhibition Machine Memoirs: Space, by internationally acclaimed artist Refik Anadol, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to reimagine two million publicly available images of space taken by NASA satellites and telescopes.
Refik said: “This is a hopeful future where machines and humanity, in combination, are agents for healing. A collaborative relationship with machines can give us new insights, knowledge and the power to not only dream, but create a better world.”
Martin Sutherland, Chief Executive of Coventry City of Culture Trust, said: “We are delighted that our partners have backed the vision for this permanent new visitor attraction, transforming old media into new media, as part of the legacy of our year as UK City of Culture.”
Coun David Welsh, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Arts at Coventry City Council, said: “The digital gallery will be a great addition to the city’s cultural offer.
“We are investing in many cultural assets in the city, bringing in more than £40m of funding, and I can’t wait to visit it when it opens.”
Visit www.coventry2021.co.uk for tickets.
