Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the museum, opened in February 2011, the VR Gallery will be equipped with state-of-the-art virtual reality headsets and controllers, encouraging visitors to explore unique immersive experiences from some of the world’s most renowned artists, museums and film festivals.

“At ArtScience Museum we believe that new technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality enable museums to create pioneering new experiences for audiences,” said Honor Harger, Executive Director of ArtScience Museum, Marina Bay Sands.

“Our new VR Gallery at Level 4 is one of the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, and will present a rolling programme of cutting-edge virtual reality works by artists, filmmakers and scientists.

“Building on the success of our award-winning projects, Into the Wild and REWILD Our Planet, the new VR Gallery underscores ArtScience Museum as a destination for ground-breaking immersive experiences.”

The gallery will open with a program called Hyperrealities, featuring works by contemporary artists Olafur Eliasson, Marina Abramović and Anish Kapoor.
MBS said strict COVID-19 safety measures will be in place, including safe distancing between visitors seated in pod seats, mandatory hand sanitization and mask-wearing. Each visitor will be also provided a sanitized VR Headset, a disposable VR mask and a set of sanitized controllers, with all contact surfaces and materials to be thoroughly disinfected after each session.

MBS, which announced in May that it had conducted mass testing of 7,500 employees, was recently granted permission to increase the capacity of its casino and welcome guests back to dine-in at the property’s restaurants.

By Ben Blaschke