Dalí will have a permanent immersive space on Passeig de Gràcia from September

The proposal is promoted by Layers of Reality together with the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí and revives the Dalí Cibernètic project, premiered in Barcelona in 2022 before travelling to cities such as Berlin, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Athens and Warsaw. The new version will not simply be the return of that exhibition: more than 50% of the content has been created, updated or remastered for this installation.

One of the central spaces will be a 24-minute immersive experience using images of Dalí’s work to explain his interest in fields such as nuclear and quantum physics, geometry and the structure of DNA. The visit will also incorporate virtual reality, with a journey in which the viewer will navigate landscapes built from the painter’s imagery.

The exhibition will also devote part of the route to Dalí the designer. Among the recreated pieces will be a dress conceived with Christian Dior to imagine how a woman would dress in 2045 and another related to Paco Rabanne. The design of shoes shaped like rhinoceroses intended to produce music while walking will also be shown.

Not everything will be a digital reproduction. The original objects announced include one of the canes that Dalí used as a crutch, while some of his jewellery can be explored through high-resolution digital reproductions. The mixture of originals, reconstructions and technology seeks to show the extent to which the artist was interested throughout his career in science, holograms and new forms of representation.

The location adds a particularly Barcelona connection to the project. Casa Amatller is at number 41 Passeig de Gràcia, a few metres from the location of Galeries Dalmau. There, from 14 to 27 November 1925, a 21-year-old Dalí presented his first solo exhibition, with 17 oils and five drawings. Now, 101 years later, the artist once again has a permanent space virtually on the same stretch of the avenue.

The arrival of Dalí Boulevard Cibernètic does not replace the historic visit to Casa Amatller. Puig i Cadafalch’s modernist building retains its own museum offering, while the new installation joins the Amatller Digital Art Center, the digital-art space associated with the property.

There is a practical detail that it is still advisable to wait for before planning a visit: the rates of between 16 and 24 euros currently linked to Casa Amatller correspond to the Casa Museu; they are not confirmed as prices for Dalí Boulevard Cibernètic. Nor have I yet found a complete official timetable for the new exhibition. The date that is confirmed is the opening, Wednesday 16 September.