New York City Landmark Transformed for Gustav Klimt: Gold in Motion

New York City’s historic Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank is undergoing a transformation. Culturespaces, France’s leading private manager of museums and cultural heritage sites, restored and renovated more than 33,000 square feet in the building to become Hall des Lumières, opening in summer 2022. Gustav Klimt: Gold in Motion will serve as the inaugural installation. This marks the first permanent, purpose-designed space in the United States from Culturespaces, the company behind the current wave of immersive digital art experiences.

Inside Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, a landmarked 1912 building, the ornate former teller hall and vault level will house glowing, animated, 30-foot-high custom displays of celebrated paintings set to an original music soundtrack mapped to the decorated marble walls, towering columns, stained glass skylights and coved ceilings. New, bespoke digital experiences based on the work of world-renowned artists will cycle through every 10 to 12 months.

Gustav Klimt: Gold in Motion takes visitors on a thematic journey through the Viennese artist’s revolutionary art. Gianfranco Iannuzzi, behind the immersive experience of Van Gogh’s work that has attracted as many as 1.4 million visitors a year, created the Klimt experience exclusively for Hall des Lumières. Advance registration for the exhibit is available now. Also on offer will be a shorter digital experience on works by Klimt successor Friedensreich Hundertwasser, and a presentation about the history and architecture of Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank.

Other destinations in the Culturespaces network include Paris’ Atelier des Lumières; South Korea’s Bunker des Lumières, on Jeju Island; Infinity des Lumières in Dubai Mall; and more.