Today Art Museum is going to launch its "Today Future Center" in August 2015. This is the first exhibition platform for ideal space of a comprehensive art museum created by Today Art Museum. The Future Center will be preluded by Today Couch Tour, a special parallel project to the 56th Venice Biennale at the beginning of May 2015. The Today Future Center will simultaneously present the artistic charm of the Biennale to the audience in Beijing with the help of the Today Couch Tour.

About Today Future Center

Although Today Future Center is only made public this year, it has been developed for some time. The prototype was a virtual exhibition six years ago. Two years ago it evolved into a 360° panorama exhibition. The brand new platform of the Future Center is a product of continuous exploration and accumulation of experience. Its inventory of literature is ripe and the technical structure is fully developed. Well-known virtual exhibitions include "the Tensile Power of Motion" by Sui Jianguo in 2010, "16:9" by Zhang Xiaogang in 2011, "the Extravagant Banquet" by Lu Shun in 2011 and the 1st Solo Internet Exhibition of Fu Lei in April 2012, which was the first virtual exhibition realized with the method of a real exhibition in China. The project utilized a 3D virtual gallery as the channel of debut publishing of the new works. The planning, designing, media campaign, production of the catalogue, and the opening ceremony of the exhibition were all carried out following the standard procedures of a real exhibition. 360° Panorama imaging technology and the integration of virtual reality helped to create more efficient viewing experience. This application of the 360° panorama technology in 2012 set a new standard and most of the major exhibitions at Today Art Museum later on are documented in 3D technology and presented in internet as a 360° panorama exhibition. 

The Future Center is not simply a 360° panorama virtual presentation of the exhibitions in internet. It does not confine itself to certain cultural type. It is becoming a plural cultural interface for art and space. The Future Center will become a cultural coexisting system which is organic and keeps growing by itself. It provides a comprehensive and real-time experimental window of world cultures. The Future Center will be the first art museum using augmented reality (AR) in China – audience may point the camera of his or her mobile phone to the object and activate predefined augmented reality contents. They will see the sculptures coming live, or disappearing, or moving around in the screen of their mobile phone. They can also easily review the comments left by other visitors.

 

Today Future Center will be a global project equivalent to the Google culture academy. It will accumulate artists, designers, architectures and other elites and rising stars in the art scene worldwide. It will create a community of world museums and evolve into a popular community of worldwide significance. In August 2015 we are going to have a complete view of the Today Future Center. 

Today Future Center and the Venice Biennale 

     Today Art Museum began to be involved in the Venice Biennale in 2011. It cooperates with artists and art curators from China and abroad. Projects include "the Future Pass" with Victoria Yung-Chih Lu from Taiwan in 2011, "the Illusory and Real Universe – Solo Exhibition of Large Paintings and Installations by Zhong Biao" in 2013, a joint project with American Chinese curator Xu Gang, the application of "Ana Tzarev Solo Exhibition" in cooperation with Ana Tzarev Foundation of the USA, and the first endeavor of applying for the Architecture Venice Biennale 2016 with the artist Ying Tianqi. Along with all these collaborations, Today Art Museum has always continued to explore more possibilities of future exhibitions with the help of technology. It keeps breaking through the geographical and time limits of international exhibitions and redefining the concept of traditional forms of a biennial exhibition event. 

In May 2011, Today Art Museum created the first "Virtual Venice" international virtual exhibition and launched it during the 54th Biennale in Today Art Museum. Audience from all over the world had a new access to the art in Venice. The exhibition presents a virtual China Pavilion of the Biennale and creates a virtual experience totally different from the reality. Visitors were able to freely walk around in the halls and view the art works of Yang Qian, Chen Wenling, Zhong Biao and other artists at an easy tap of their keyboard or click of the mouse. The background was designed as a night mode to give the virtual exhibition an additional touch of mystery. 

In June 2013, Today Art Museum presented a more mature 360° panorama technology. It sent a camera crew to document China Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 3D views.

Today Art Museum is going to participate in the 56th Biennale again in May 2015. It will collaborate with "the Unteachable Characters of Art", a parallel exhibition in Venice. The cutting edge technology will help audience to realize a couch tour to cultures of the world, east, west, ancient and modern alike. Audience in China will be able to enjoy a banquet for the eyes of art in Venice while relaxing in their living room couch. The project is produced by Beijing ZHC Art Center Co., Ltd.