© GEDEON Experiences – Backlight – Musée d’Orsay – VIVE Art
© GEDEON Experiences – Backlight – Musée d’Orsay – VIVE Art
Immersive showcase brings audiences inside one of the most daring artistic and engineering feats of the 19th century
PARIS, FRANCE, September 16, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Through January 31, 2027, the Musée d’Orsay presents the virtual reality journey A Statue for Liberty: Bartholdi’s Dream [Une statue pour la liberté: Le rêve de Bartholdi], spanning nearly 700 m² within the museum’s Amont Gallery. Crafted in partnership with VIVE Arts and Backlight, the exhibition plunges attendees into the core of one of the 19th century’s most ambitious creative and technical endeavors. As the narrative unfolds, participants become firsthand observers of a Franco-American vision taking shape—one that ultimately emerged as a global emblem of freedom.
A STATUE FOR LIBERTY BARTHOLDI’S DREAM
15 Sept. 26 – 31 Jan. 27
Level 0, Amont Gallery
An experience by GEDEON Experiences, coproduced with BackLight, Musée d’Orsay, and VIVE Arts, with support from the Musée Bartholdi in Colmar.
Equipped with virtual-reality headsets, visitors follow in the footsteps of Auguste Bartholdi. Grounded in extensive archival research, the experience features a faithful digital recreation of the Gaget, Gauthier & Cie workshop, developed by GEDEON Experiences alongside their collaborator Aristeas. The exhibition’s curators worked closely with GEDEON Experiences and BackLight Studio throughout the design phase, contributing scholarly oversight to guarantee accurate portrayals of the historical setting and key moments. The journey offers a sensory exploration where perspective shifts dramatically: from a modest blueprint resting on a table to the monumental scale of the completed structure, visitors are awed by the project’s sheer magnitude. Along the way, they uncover the influences that sparked the artist’s creativity and the events that progressively refined his vision.
Beginning in the salon of politician Edouard Laboulaye, where the idea originated, passing through the banks of the Nile—where Bartholdi once envisioned erecting a massive lighthouse at the Suez Canal’s entrance—and moving into the political turmoil that affected both France and the United States during the latter half of the 19th century, participants share in his triumphs and his uncertainties when the endeavor appeared destined for failure: mounting financial hurdles, initial prototypes that proved delicate, and the project’s overwhelming ambition that at times seemed impossible to overcome. Yet, propelled by unwavering resolve, Bartholdi perseveres. Before the audience’s eyes, his concept evolves—from drawing to scale model, and from model to landmark. Virtual reality resurrects long-vanished settings and places visitors directly within this extraordinary narrative.
Guests experience the energy of the Philadelphia World’s Fair, where the statue’s torch was showcased to rally public enthusiasm, before entering the expansive Gaget, Gauthier & Cie workshop. Reconstructed for the first time in virtual reality through meticulous historical investigation, this lost structure has been revived in all its grandeur. A true industrial marvel, the workshop reflects the relentless efforts of nearly six hundred laborers, artisans, and apprentices who devoted years to fabricating the copper giant designed by Bartholdi. Visitors navigate past scaffolding and massive hand-shaped metal panels, appreciating the engineering breakthroughs devised by Gustave Eiffel to address the unprecedented difficulties of constructing such an immense monument.
About VIVE Arts
VIVE Arts (HTC) is a worldwide arts and technology initiative redefining the ways culture is produced, experienced, and preserved using digital tools. VIVE Arts commissions, produces, and distributes pioneering immersive works in collaboration with leading artists and cultural institutions—expanding creative horizons for creators and empowering organizations to bring heritage to life in fresh, impactful formats that connect with broader audiences. Through deep expertise in arts, culture, and technology, VIVE Arts enables artists and institutions to leverage immersive media. This fosters novel approaches to storytelling, experimentation, and exhibition while nurturing a vibrant ecosystem for digital creativity in the arts, spanning from concept to distribution. Since its establishment in 2017, VIVE Arts has completed over 75 initiatives globally and remains at the cutting edge of advancing culture through technology.
Sarah McNaughton, Shea Seery, Lauren Gagnon
Resnicow and Associates
+1 212-671-5161
VIVEArts@resnicow.com
