‘King Size’ at the MSG Sphere Las Vegas

Film director and video artist Marco Brambilla is widely known for pioneering digital imaging technologies and AI to create immersive video installations that draw on the vernacular and use found imagery to satirize today’s society and question how we produce and transmit information.

After U2’s creative director saw Brambilla’s ‘Heaven’s Gate’ at Outernet Arts in London, he invited Brambilla to imagine digital artwork — the largest video collage ever made – for the band’s inaugural residency at the opening of  the MSG Sphere in Las Vegas.

Brambilla’s 16K resolution immersive artwork has stunned concert-goers by celebrating the ‘king of rock’n’roll,’ Elvis Presley, like never before. Dubbed KING SIZE, and created using state-of-the-art AI and CGI technologies, the project is on view from September 29 to December 16, imbuing the audience with Elvis’s world through a staggering 160,000-square-foot wraparound interior LED display.

Heaven’s Gate

In Marco Brambilla latest video installation, Heaven’s Gate we levitate through a panoramic landscape of sampled film clips from movies both obscure and familiar collaged into an elaborate digital canvas. The collage speaks the language of the Hollywood ‘Dream Factory’; a glossy reflection of humanity’s perpetual quest for the ultimate fantasy. Its visual melodrama mimicking the silver screen spectacles once produced by Walt Disney and Cecile B. DeMille.

Heaven’s Gate is a video monument to Hollywood’s veneration of glamour while retelling the history of the world in seven distinct phases. Employing spectacle to describe a familiar and universal story, the digitally assembled images generate a hyper-realistic landscape of clouds, meadows and cityscapes, against which humanity oscillates between enlightenment and production. With each cycle and succeeding level of the work, Heaven’s Gate engulfs the viewer in a level of density in imagery almost impossible to sustain.

The Four Temperaments

In The Four Temperaments, Cate Blanchett performs four sets of distinct character types divided according to a personality classification first defined by the Greek philosopher, Galen. He named the four ‘Temperaments’: Sanguine (yellow), Choleric (red), Melancholic (blue), and Phlegmatic (green). The characters performed by Blanchett each appear within a single floating crystal ball. The character fixes her gaze and addresses the viewer with the worlds “I love you.”

Confronting familiar emotions that shift between intimacy and distance, gentleness and brutality; the viewer inadvertently becomes the subject in a cross-fire of emotions.

Nude Descending a Staircase No.3

‘Nude Descending a Staircase No. 3’ moved the iconic Duchamp painting into the dimension of time. The illusion of movement in the painting was explored as the figures inhabiting the digital canvas constantly reconfigured themselves to cascade down an unseen stairway. The figures, shapes and color palette are pure cubism, expanded into three dimensions using state-of-the-art computer technology.

‘Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2’ is a rare case where an artist drew from a “new” technology (Eadweard Muybridge’s photographic time-studies) as an inspiration for a painting. By taking the original Duchamp painting back into the technological realm and adding the dimension of time, Brambilla aimed to complete the circle and pay homage to the deconstructed image using a wholly contemporary visual language.

Wall of Death

In the carnival act “Wall of Death,” first performed in the 1930s, a motorcyclist rides around the inside of a wooden drum, maintaining a delicate state of equilibrium between centrifugal force and gravity.

The video is made up of a series of motion loops that become progressively shorter, creating the illusion of continuous motion: The rider is caught in a never-ending, never decelerating circle. The editing technique, inspired by the Kinetoscope films popular during the time the act was widely performed.

Apollo XVIII

The countdown to a planned (but never launched) 1973 NASA space mission was reconstructed in Brambilla’s ambitious multimedia work, Apollo XVIII – a multi-channel video installation that interpreted man’s relationship to space exploration and presented an imagined mission to the moon; a mission born in the virtual age. For one month, Times Square was transformed into a virtual launchpad as Apollo XVIII played across dozens of electronic billboards from 11:57pm to midnight.

In collaboration with NASA, footage was filmed at Cape Canaveral, combined with Hubble imagery, rare material from the NASA archives and original computer-generated imagery to fabricate the fictitious mission. Combining iconic moments from past and present with the wholly synthetic, Apollo XVIII presented a new collective viewing experience, calling into question the nature of fact and fiction, reality versus perception and context.

Materialization/De-Materialization

For his immersive site-specific video installation, ‘Materialization/De-materialization,’ Brambilla used video samples from the ‘transporter room’ effect from the original Star Trek television series, where the characters were ‘de-materialized,’ then teleported through space and ‘re-materialized’ at their destination. Groupings of hundreds of characters were introduced using this effect, each edited into a motion loop where they were never fully revealed, and always appeared on the verge of departure or arrival, trapped in a perpetual state of transition.

To produce this work, Brambilla sampled each instance where this effect appears in the 27 episodes of the original Star Trek television series (1966-69), then removed each character from the original background, leaving only the outline of the person appearing and disappearing in a shimmering curtain of floating sparkle.

The characters appeared grouped into discrete rings on a black The characters appeared grouped into discrete rings on a black field; they gradually grew in size and multiplied endlessly before dissipating back into the black field. Characters seemed to migrate from ring to ring randomly forever trapped in this constantly regenerating moment of flux.

The Pentaverate

Brambilla was commissioned to create the opening sequence for Netflix’s six-part Mike Myers comedy, ‘The Pentaverate,’ which centers on a secret society facing a dangerous threat from within after influencing global events for centuries.

The title sequence of ‘The Pentaverate’ begins with a glass structure emerging from the darkness, forming a lattice that resembles a throne. Figures of history’s most influential men reflect behind the Tower of Babel while a key, guarded by the Eye of Providence, ascends from the edifice. What doors does the key unlock? What secrets does it hold? Crystal pillars kaleidoscopically expand and contract to reveal the opening of the gates. There, five men stand on what seems like the end of a journey, or the foundation of a new beginning.

7 Deaths Of Maria Callas

“7 Deaths of Maria Callas” is an opera project by Marina Abramović, centered on seven arias once performed by the American-born Greek soprano, Maria Callas. In traditional opera, an intermezzo acts as a musical interlude between arias consisting of light instrumental pieces. In “7 Deaths,” the intermezzos, created by Marco Brambilla, are audiovisual – the orchestra ringing to sinister clouds, swirling hypnotically across the theatre’s large projection screen.

Created using particle simulation, a sophisticated computer graphics language which defines the parameters of an object, Brambilla created seven skies made of a billion particles — all moving as one collides and interacts with another. Each sky, with its own colour palette, sets the emotional tone for each act, reflecting Maria Callas’ state of mind as she reached the end of her life. This computer-generated method resulted in something painterly and impressionistic, akin to the dramatic and hyperreal skies of Turner and Monet.

Pelléas et Mélisande

This new incarnation of Claude Debussy’s only opera, staged on the 100th anniversary of his death by Opera Vlaanderen and Royal Ballet Flanders, presented a new concept in abstract staging from an all-star creative team. Based on the 1892 play by Maurice Maeterlinck, Pelléas at Mélisande describes how innocence is able to transform into a dramatic – and deathly – love triangle.

Lending an epic element to a minimal stage concept, Brambilla used original NASA footage manipulated from real photography taken by the Hubble Telescope as brushstrokes to emphasize the opera’s rhythm in a series of eclipses that travel deeper and deeper, inspired by the classic, psychedelic ‘stargate’ sequence of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Having worked with NASA on a commission in 2015, Brambilla had access to a vast library of high-resolution imagery, with which he was able to render familiar shapes and objects as mesmeric, terrifying, and artful, adding dimension and advancing the narrative.

Maison Margiela:
‘Nude Descending a Staircase No.3’

Brambilla’s artwork is a contemporary digital reinvention of Marcel Duchamp’s 1912 masterpiece, Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2.

Brambilla has transformed Duchamp’s original static painting into a monumental moving panorama, complete with a haunting piano score, depicting multiple 3D animated figures cascading down infinite, invisible stairs. The piece pays homage to the deconstructed image and advances the classical into the contemporary.

Guests who enter the store on Crosby St. have the chance to see Brambilla’s first indoor installation. The videos are presented asynchronously to one another, just as technology disrupts our lives, for better or worse.

t’s not the first time Brambilla and Margiela have teamed up. The piece was projected onto the facade of Margiela’s flagship store in the Miami Design District last December. Brambilla’s Nude Descending a Staircase No.3 is the first in a new series of artist activations coming to the store in the coming months. Visit Maison Margiela at 1 Crosby St. to see the installation on display now through July 6.

Westfield World Trade Centre:
‘Nude Descending a Staircase No.3’

For the second installment of their 2019 video art program, Westfield and Art Production Fund displayed a dynamic excerpt from Brambilla’s ‘Nude Descending a Staircase No. 3’ across the large-scale screens at Westfield World Trade Center in New York City and Westfield Century City in Los Angeles, measuring up to 4 stories tall.

‘Nude Descending a Staircase No. 3’ moved the iconic Duchamp painting into the dimension of time. The illusion of movement in the painting was explored as the figures inhabiting the digital canvas constantly reconfigured themselves to cascade down an unseen stairway. The figures, shapes and color palette are pure cubism, expanded into three dimensions using state-of-the-art computer technology.

‘Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2’ is a rare case where an artist drew from a “new” technology (Eadweard Muybridge’s photographic time-studies) as an inspiration for a painting. By taking the original Duchamp painting back into the technological realm and adding the dimension of time, Brambilla aimed to complete the circle and pay homage to the deconstructed image using a wholly contemporary visual language.

FX Networks: Fracture

‘Legion,’ based on the Marvel Comics by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz, was one of the most provocative and compelling comic book adaptations to ever appear on television. To garner buzz and anticipation for Season 2, boutique marketing agency Industria Creative commissioned Brambilla to create an immersive audiovisual art exhibition on behalf of FX Networks, taking inspiration from the series and delivering a work in his signature style.

Reimagining a collage of scenes from the previous and upcoming seasons of ‘Legion’ along with found footage in Brambilla’s signature, highly-Instagrammable kaleidoscopic style, the mesmerizing video was presented in a 360-degree micro-theatre designed in the Legion aesthetic that felt like an elevator in motion while the immersive video played. The visual experience left visitors questioning what was real, and what was not, as they were transported to a mind-bending, reality-shifting world.

Kanye West: Power

Kanye West enlisted Brambilla to visualize the first single from his ‘Good Ass Job’ album, ‘Power.’ The video depicts Kanye as a quasi-religious icon paying homage to Salvador Dali’s famous collaboration with photographer Philippe Halsman.

‘Power’ shows a continuous camera move from extreme close-up of West revealing a neoclassical video tableau showing characters and creatures surrounding him in an abstract environment – all moving in extreme slow motion.

Inspired by Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, the piece depicts a faux historical moment – an empire on the brink of collapse from its own excess, decadence and corruption. The hyper-saturated result, which also played in the immersive environment of the Standard Hotel elevator, involves 24 layers of imagery combined into a seamless video.

Ferrari: RPM

In celebration of Ferrari’s automobile marvel, the 458 Spider, the car manufacturer commissioned Brambilla to create a Formula One-inspired 3D video loop.

Brambilla carefully crafted the 3D film from footage taken at the Italian Formula One Grand Prix in Monza and from the Scuderia Ferrari video archives. A self-proclaimed F1 enthusiast, Brambilla presented a compelling psychological portrait of a driver’s point-of-view during a race in a densely hypnotic and kaleidoscopic style. The idea of man/machine came from a quote from legendary F1 driver Ayrton Senna, who often said that he enters a state where his consciousness becomes ‘one’ with the car and the circuit in order to win.

There is no beginning or end in RPM, just an accelerating trajectory that has no specific destination, compressing time and reflecting the elevated mental state necessary to maintain control under extreme pressure. Brambilla also pushed his personal boundaries with this piece, as he used 3D editing tools to enable multi-planing the foreground, midground and background for an exceptional 3D experience.

RPM premiered during Miami Art Basel at an event hosted by Ferrari, Peter M. Brandt and Sotheby’s Tobias Meyer.

Hugo Boss: THISISBOSS

Described as a ‘spring awakening’ by HUGO BOSS womenswear artistic director​, Jason Wu, Brambilla’s film THISISBOSS finds women in an untraditional, glowing forest. Set to a distorted version of Tchaikovsky’s ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ with added synth, the film was captured in a Canadian nature preserve and stars model Suvi Koponen. In addition to uniting nature and technology, it fuses classical and hi-tech imagery in Brambilla’s crisp, hypnotic style.

Donning a floor length, white silk dress, Koponen eerily pirouettes as replicated images of herself begin to fill the surrounding forest. The visuals were inspired by the theatricality and tone of the music, a part of the piece itself as opposed to a score, and this waltz suggested a continuous orbiting camera. Brambilla built the set of a forest within the real forest, and then interfered using LED lighting, which removed it from nature.

Hugo Boss: Kino

‘Kino’ is a seamless scroll comprising more than 200 original elements combined using visual effects techniques, enabling viewers to choose from three different points of view, all with a simple tilt of the head.

This film, developed for Hugo Boss, reveals a highly stylized, and elegant vision of an impeccably dressed man making his way through a surreal and magical night.