At the Bassins des Lumières in Bordeaux, an immersive daydream in the heart of Venice

Until January 2, 2023, the exhibition "Venice the Serenissima", installed in a former submarine base from the Second World War, invites the visitor to stroll along four huge parallel basins 110 meters long, 22 meters wide and 12 meters high on which hundreds of sound images are projected.

Canaletto, Titian, Bellini, Tintoretto or Veronese...: for about forty minutes, paintings and engravings representing the lakeside city are linked to the sounds of Verdi, Vivaldi or more contemporary reinterpretations.

"It is not a catalog of one of the most famous cities in the world but a walk between interior and exterior. We open doors, we discover a ceiling, a marble floor", explains Gianfranco Iannuzzi, artistic director, himself of Venetian origin.

"What always fascinated me during my childhood were the canals and the reflections of the city in the water. Here is the ideal place to recreate this feeling. The place enhances the images and gives them a little magic", underlines this precursor in the creation of digital art installations, at the origin of all the immersive exhibitions of the private organization Culturespaces, which manages the site.

Through a subtle interplay of perspectives and cropped images, the visitor navigates the Grand Canal, admires the Byzantine mosaics and goldsmithery of Saint Mark's Basilica up close or swirls under the chandeliers of Murano during masked balls.

The masterpieces of Italian art from the 12th to the 17th century rub shoulders with the shimmering visions of other painters: Monet, Signac, Turner.

Photos of stars from the 50s and 60s, Marcello Mastroianni, Sean Connery or Sophia Loren, remind us that Venice is also the Mostra.

The exhibition is followed by a shorter immersive program (10 minutes) devoted to the Spanish painter Jaoquin Sorolla and his "Promenades en bord de mer".

The Bassins des Lumières attracted 570.000 visitors last year. After Bordeaux, the exhibition will join other Culturespaces venues, starting with the "Carrières de lumière" in Baux-de-Provence and the "Atelier des Lumières" in Paris.