'Italian Renaissance Alive' Is the Next Multi-Sensory Exhibition That'll Give You an Immersive Art Experience

Every great exhibition should make you feel like you're surrounded by the artist's work, whether or not it includes giant fairy tale forests or a towering spider. Melbourne-based outfit Grande Experiences takes that idea to heart, turning peering at masterpieces into an immersive 360-degree experience. Fancy seeing Italian Renaissance works, including the Mona Lisa, get the multi-sensory treatment? That's on the company's list in Australia next.

When you've ushered the world into Vincent van Gogh's art — getting them not just peering at it but stepping through it — and Claude Monet's as well, what follows? Showcasing Michelangelo, da Vinci, Raphael, Botticelli, Caravaggio, Titian, Veronese and their peers. Van Gogh Alive proved a smash hit when it toured the country, even hitting up some cities multiple times. Monet in Paris dazzled Brisbane in 2023. Now, come 2024, Italian Renaissance Alive will become everyone's new reason to visit HOTA, Home of the Arts on the Gold Coast.

The idea remains the same as Grande Experiences' other art must-sees, but the works being splashed across the walls, floors and ceilings will now hail from Italy from around the 15th and 16th centuries. And yes, that includes some of the big ones. The Sistine Chapel, The Last Supper, The Birth of Venus: they're all part of Italian Renaissance Alive in a huge way. Given the large-than-life manner in which they're presented, we really do mean huge, too.

From Friday, March 29–Sunday, August 4, 2024, you'll mosey around, spy iconic art surrounding you everywhere you look, and be part of not just a showcase but an experience. So, there'll be light and colour, obviously, but also sound and scents. Providing the soundtrack: Puccini, Verdi and other Italian operatic tunes.

This excuse to spend some time on the Gold Coast, whether that means taking a trip down the highway or flying up from down south (or west), is part of HOTA, Home of the Arts' just-announced 2024 program. Also on the bill: the currently showing Sneakers Unboxed: From Studio to Street, a southeast Queensland stint for Elvis: A Musical Revolution and the latest tour for Agatha Christie's stage whodunnit The Mousetrap.

HOTA attendees will also be able to see catch Queensland Ballet's Coppélia, a stage version of Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach for the young and young at heart, a one-night-only performance of New Zealand's Wild Dogs Under My Skirt, Stunt Double by The Farm and more.

Italian Renaissance Alive will display at HOTA, Home of the Arts, 135 Bundall Road, Surfers Paradise Gold Coast from Friday, March 29–Sunday, August 4, 2024. For further details, head to the venue's website.

Images: Grande Experiences.