Da Vinci Exhibition

Gordon & I took some time off our afternoon to visit the Science center today. We heard about this exhibition from Mr. Tan (aka Jason), who thought it would be well worth our time (& money). At first I was not very excited about going for an exhibition – afterall, the science centre is so tiny, how much awe and wonder can it contain?

But then it really proved me wrong.

Da Vinci was truly a Genius.

I was amazed and captivated by all the re-created models and reproduced art pieces! These include drawings of the human anatomy; brilliant models of simple but amazing equipments made of ball bearings, pulleys, and gears; unearthing the true colours of the original Mona Lisa, Virgin on the rocks, Vitruvian Man, amongst many others. The exhibition hall was rather small & compact… but if you were to spend abit of time appreciating each and every exhibit, you could easily stay there for 3-4 hours.

I cant help but rant about the itchy fingers and blinded eyes of some kids (AND PARENTS) though. While the exhibits were displayed in open space, there were quite a few that had signs on them clearly stating “DO NOT TOUCH“… but some uncles and aunties still went ahead and openly tried to spin the wheels, pull the levers, or just randomly run their hands all over them! OMG i tell you if i was in a worse mood i would volunteered to gladly go around LOUDLY REPRIMANDING their actions. Kids – ok, maybe they missed the signs. But with their parents at the same exhibits i feel strongly about those parents taking their kids into hand! The organisors have been so kind as to do away with glass boxes and barricades so we can get close to them exhibits, but some people just love to take advantage of the situation & as a result, i found a number of the exhibits either worn out or spoilt. Thats damn bloody irresponsible – these bo chap parents! Too bad cannot take photos in the venue, else i’ll definitely take photos (WITH FLASH) when they’re running their dirty fingers through the exhibits. And then email these photos to the organisors so they know who’s responsible for the spoilt models.

-huff puff-

Phew. That was quite a rant.

Anyhow, there’s just 2 more weeks before the exhibition ends so if you’re interested, do go down and have a look :)

Mona Lisa

Inventor, artist, scientist, engineer, sculptor, anatomist, biologist, musician, architect, philosopher ….. Leonardo da Vinci was all of these things!

Leonardo left behind precious little for us to marvel at and what he did leave behind is for the main, only on permanent display in many esteemed museums in different cities around the world; and its not moving anywhere, for anyone! Or like the original Vitruvian Man housed in Venice, his originals are considered too fragile and precious to even be on display.

The challenge was, how does one create an exhibition that showcases his full genius under the one roof, and create it in such a way so it can readily travel around the world and be viewed in all the leading cities for the populous to enjoy.

Grande Exhibitions and The Anthropos Association (creators of Il Genio di Leonardo da Vinci Museo, Rome, Italy) formed a very strong and exclusive partnership to do just this, sharing a combined vision for such a showcase international travelling exhibition: Da Vinci – The Genius.

With the vision of Grande Exhibitions the exhibition moves beyond machine inventions, incorporating an amazing display of the images by French Scientific Engineer Pascal Cotte and his startling 25 revelations on the Mona Lisa (see Secrets of Mona Lisa), reproductions of Leonardo’s codices and most famous renaissance art in actual size, an amazing collection of anatomical sketches, the famous Anghiari Battle Preparatory Drawings and entertaining and educational animations in 3D/HD of The Last Supper, the Vitruvian Man, the creation of the Mona Lisa nd one of Leonardo’s most ambitious projects, the Sforza Horse Sculpture.

Many exhibit items are interactive, some are to scale, some are life size whilst others are oversize; all made to enhance the impact and viewing experience for the visitor. This has helped Grande Exhibitions produce the most comprehensive and complete exhibition travelling the world on a man who is arguably the greatest genius of all time.

A new addition to the Da Vinci – The Genius exhibition is the Secrets of Mona Lisa display. French scientific engineer and photographer of fine art, Pascal Cotte was granted unprecedented access by the French Government and The Louvre Museum to conduct an extensive scientific evaluation of this masterpiece. He did so under strict security and supervision, taking her out of her frame and away from the protective glass enclosure. His photographic examination and findings have startled the art world – making 25 revelations including identifying her original pigment colours, proving she indeed did have eyebrows and eyelashes and producing the world’s only 360 ° walk around replica.
The key works of this extraordinary exhibition include:

• Large scale Machine Inventions, many interactive, crafted by modern day Artisans in Italy. The machines are based on the Artisan’s meticulous and lengthy studies into Leonardo’s codices
• Facsimiles of a fascinating collection of Codices
• Life & Times of Leonardo da Vinci presentation
• Leonardo’s mysterious Alphabet & writing technique
• Reproductions of da Vinci’s amazingly accurate and detailed Anatomical Drawings
• Reproductions of famous Da Vinci Renaissance Artwork in actual size
• The Anghiari Battle Preparatory Drawings
• The famous Vitruvian Man image and explanation in a world exclusive 3D animation
• The Last Supper 3D animation
• The creation of the Mona Lisa in 3D animation
• The Great Sforza Horse Sculpture in 3D animation
• Educational Programs – Primary and Secondary levels
• Da Vinci Documentary

August 1, 2009 | Categories: my day, outing, rants | 2 Comments »