The Opening of Beijing’s New X Museum Has Been Indefinitely Postponed, But Users Can Virtually Explore the Space in Its New Interactive Website

Museums and art galleries in
China have remained closed since late January as the country
attempts to curb the spread of coronavirus, but the opportunity to
experience art is altogether on lockdown.

The newly established X Museum
in Beijing, which was forced to delay its planned opening date
because of the virus, has launched an interactive virtual project
space, giving people an
opportunity to explore the institution from their own
homes.  

The site, created by artist Pete
Jiadong Qiang, is framed as a kind of game. Users are “players,”
navigating its virtual spaces with their arrow keys to enter
different portals, shift perspective, and even discover a few
easter eggs. The physical shape of the museum is loosely echoed in
the basic graphic structure of the site’s interface, but players
aren’t limited by the laws of physics and architecture as they
start to poke around. 

The project wasn’t a reaction to
the virus, the 26-year-old founder of the
museum, Michael Xufu
Huang, explains—it’s been in
the works since last October. But it does provide an alternative
way to experience a museum. 

“It is not a virtual
reproduction of our physical architecture, but instead an extension
of our program in a digital dimension,” Huang tells Artnet News. The site
will complement the museum’s
physical shows, while also supporting online-only curatorial
projects designed by artists or produced in collaboration with
other institutions. 

The idea, adds museum
curator Poppy Dongxue
Wu, is to update the
function of a museum website to match the way people—and artists
especially—use the web today.

“I am suspicious of how museums’
online platforms today still follow the logic of Web 1.0, producing
contents with minimal interactivity,” she says. “Gamifying the
experience comes with the objectives of provoking participation and
curiosity.”

The opening date of the X
Museum, originally set for this month, has been delayed
indefinitely due to the epidemic. An ambitious
triennial, which will
seek to define the
“zeitgeist of the millennial,” will christen the walls of the space when it
does open.

The post The Opening of Beijing’s New X Museum Has Been
Indefinitely Postponed, But Users Can Virtually Explore the Space
in Its New Interactive Website appeared first on artnet
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