"A physical visit to a museum is only part of the experience"

It was to be one of the events of the museum spring. The Pompeii exhibition at the Grand Palais, immersive and digital, was postponed because of the coronavirus epidemic. However, the Réunion des Musées Nationaux (RMN-Grand Palais) has chosen to offer internet users various online content around the exhibition, Pompeii at Home .

If the physical visit to the exhibition promised to be particularly impressive, it is also a sum of new archaeological data and new scientific interpretations. The exhibition website thus offers exclusive videos of very high resolution shots: restoration of a mosaic, 3D reconstruction of the "house in the garden" ... The audio guide and part of the exhibition catalog are also available. Many other content, especially aimed at children, is accessible free of charge. Finally, a virtual reality device allows you to observe an ancient statue of Livia on your phone, with your favorite place of confinement in the background ...

Challenge 🌋 Bring up the Livie sculpture in augmented reality, share it on Twitter with # ExpoPompéi and try to win a meeting with the real Livie when the expo opens at #GrandPalais! To make it appear, it is here: https://t.co/HJJ6yPpYWw pic.twitter.com/PaO0e2plo5

Pompeii Roei Amit, director of digital development at the RMN-Grand Palais, explains to 20 Minutes how this virtual exhibition was possible.

How was it possible to transfer, on the Internet, so many aspects of the Pompeii exhibition?

It is an exhibition with a very strong digital dominance. So it was easier. And in addition, the Réunion des Musées Nationaux has had a 360 ° view of visitors for several years. The physical visit is only part of the museum public experience today.

That is to say ?

This means that for us the visit to an exhibition begins before the physical visit, and continues afterwards. And we are accompanying this movement with digital devices, for each exhibition.

For Pompeii, you have made the podcast download of the exhibition audio guide free. Is this part of this 360 degree device?

This is an example, yes. Even if in this case, the audio guides are normally designed to accompany the physical visit. We could put this in place on many exhibitions but it is not always the bias.

There is no question of completely replacing the physical visit?

The physical experience is different from the experience you have at home, of course. It is less rich. But today most visitors are very connected and prepare the exhibition before coming. And often they follow it up with readings, from catalogs for example. Digital allows this. Some visitors start the exhibition, with readings on social media or newspapers for example, before they even know they are coming to the exhibition.

Did this archaeological exhibition lend itself particularly to the digital device?

Absolutely. This is to present objects of course, but above all to show 3D views of Pompeii before its destruction. We have used technological devices for this which did not exist a few years ago. The archaeological data is unpublished, and dates from the very last excavations, and the presentation is brand new too. This predominance of digital allows a transposition of part of the exhibition on the Internet, which would not have been possible with an exhibition with artefacts, or the encounter with the original object is irreplaceable.

What does the exhibition, whose opening has been postponed, hold as surprises for visitors who have already explored the digital offers?

The staging will be unique! There is an amphitheater, and a reconstructed Pompeii street. An augmented reality process immerses visitors in the atmosphere of Pompeii just before the eruption of Vesuvius. We also have a view of the volcano.

Do you think that confinement, which pushes many museums to offer online content, can change mentalities and encourage more establishments to migrate to digital?

It's possible. I am happy that this initiative around Pompeii gives a spotlight on our digital content. But the lesson from all of this is above all that the physical visit is still just as important. I have the impression that in this period, there is an appetite for cultural offers. People turn to art, to knowledge. And when the confinement ends, they may come even more to the exhibitions. It is perhaps when we cannot go to the museum that we have the most life to go there…

Culture

Coronavirus: In quarantine in Hong Kong, "I stuck pictures on the wall, like an inmate"

Television

Coronavirus: What is the use of weather reports when we are not allowed to go out?

• Art
• Culture
• Exposure
• Museum