Jeffrey Jah and Leigh Sachwitz bring da Vinci to Berlin

Last Friday, on 28 January 2022, a new generation of art shows opened in Berlin. “Genius Immersive Experience” takes the audience on a sensory journey that lets them experience today’s world through the ever-contemporary eye of Leonardo da Vinci, raising the question, what would experiencing da Vinci be like in the year 2022?

The answer is connecting the legacy of the visionary pioneer to the present time that showcases the usual brushstrokes of the paintings dematerialised into pixels, the silence that usually surrounds the artworks fade into music, and the audience speak and touch the works. The limits that previously defined the distance between our body and the artwork, regulated perceptions and interpretations to which we are used to, are cancelled by the immersive experience, changing the viewer’s perception. And as we lose our sense of gravity, we ask ourselves: is this the future of art we are heading towards?

SLEEK took a sneak peek of the exhibition and had the opportunity to speak to Jeffrey Jah, Founder of BIG Borealis Interactive Group, the producer of Genius, and Leigh Sachwitz, Founder and Creative Director of flora&faunavisions, the concept creators and designers of Genius. 

SLEEK: Da Vinci would have turned 570 this year, a genius widely celebrated. Why portray his work through technologies so far removed from his time?

Jeffrey Jah: For me the most important thing is being on the forefront of technology, doing something on this scale, which hasn’t been done with men’s interactivity, linear video. Really being educational, cultural, and entertaining. I want people to dance. I want them to feel good. To get that high that they can get! That’s what I want to give and I think we can do that here. We have a responsibility to the consumer to provide great educational and cultural experiences that are informative and responsible. Our show addresses some of the issues: plastic in the oceans and trash in space. We’re socially, physically responsible. We aspire to be an ESG company.

Leigh Sachwitz: It’s a creative journey through the eyes of Da Vinci today. So, if he was to wake up [now], what would he think? It’s more than 500 years later he’s like crypto frozen or whatever [laughs]. What would he do? How would he paint if he was painting digitally? How would his art look? What kind of brushstrokes would he have? What would he think about the space? About the space trash? How would the Mona Lisa be? I don’t think that she would just be a still painting. She would be augmented or virtual.

JJ: He’d be gagging over how much his art is worth!

S: The exhibition will talk about ‘responsible consumption and ecology’ themes that in the not-yet-industrialised Renaissance was not yet discussed. How do you think Leonardo would approach this issue today?

JJ: They did have those problems back then, they had waste disposal problems. They had fresh water problems. Look, this pandemic is nothing compared to the pandemics they had back then, where there were no medicine, where the average person lived to an old age of 35. Science, technology, evolution, all of those things play on. If you think about da Vinci, he’s so ahead of his time, the show embodies that.

LS: I think he’s like the equivalent of David Attenborough today, he’s like a total environmentalist. He was completely obsessed with nature, water and everything he did and everything he invented was all about making things better – better for the world. He was obsessed with space. He was a vegetarian, an animal lover. He was [like] an alien back then.

S: The Mona Lisa, with its mysterious smile and uncertain origins, is the emblem of the ambiguity of Leonardo’s work and its charm. Why did you choose to give it a voice to answer questions?

LS: We had many meetings about this topic, she’s not answering about herself. You can’t find out where she comes from. She’s answering about what’s happening in society now. She’s answering about fashion or the environment, or talking about things of value today. So, the mystery around her still remains because she’s not revealing anything about her, and where she’s from. I think this is the key to keeping the mystery around her. We’re embodying what da Vinci would’ve wanted, what Mona Lisa represents in today’s context, within his values.

S: Leonardo’s paintings, frescoes and drawings, given their location in major museums or churches, are always surrounded by an almost sacred silence. The approach of the exhibition, through audiovisual content composed of video, audio, touch and AR experiences, is totally inverse. How do you think people will react to finding themselves in a completely different context?

JJ: Again, we wanted to make it fun. All of these shows have classical symphony music. We are in 2022, I wanted a modern, cool and a very good sound system and be edgy to speak to my generation.

LS: The question is what’s immersive, right? What is an immersive show? You can’t just say that immersive it’s just taking a picture and enlarging it and putting it on a digital projector. There’s gotta be more on your consciousness. It’s there’s gotta be touch points. We talk about touch, we talk about music sound. Space and sight. If you talk about immersive, then I think silence has to be curated. There are a few moments of silence in the show, two or three, very short, like a moment where it’s like taking a breath and then travels again.

S: Why da Vinci in Berlin?

JJ: Originally, it was going to be either Amsterdam or New York. I’m from New York and we had a great venue in Amsterdam, but then Leigh proposed this venue in Berlin. When we came to see it, I said to myself, “you know what? With the amount of time and engine that’s gonna be needed with her team and all the experts, being here will be a lot easier.” Berlin is considered by many to be one of the coolest, hip cities in the world. Top 10 cities in the world, up there with New York.

S: And are you afraid of the Italian market with this exhibition?

JJ: Absolutely Not. I’m going to bring the show to Milano.

S: Is there a personal reason to why you chose Leonardo da Vinci?

JJ: I mean, I struggled with this for a long time. It was either gonna be the Big Bang or da Vinci, but I saw all the artists that were in the marketplace. It was so obvious to me that I couldn’t just do something on an artist. It had to be someone that was so talented, so profound that would really keep me interested.I would see all these shows and I could only enjoy it for 15-20 minutes. I wanted to create something that was unique that you could grow and take something from. I think we’ve accomplished that here!

S: During your career you had the opportunity to confront several types of work, from gastronomy, to nightlife, luxury hospitality, event and entertainment, big collaborations and so on. Why did you decide to enter the market of immersive experience showcasing art?

JJ: I think it correlates a lot to my hospitality background. For me it was an easy correlation. My cousin is the producer of the Vincent Van Gogh show in Toronto. And I went to look at the show and I thought, yeah, we can do better [laughs]. I can just create one show and make that show incredible.

Genius Immersive Experience is open now and continues until the end of 2022.