Metaverse experiences have levelled up with spatial digital exhibitions

Art curators are "unframing" contemporary art to create interactive experiences for metaverse goers that more closely emulate IRL experiences.

Throughout Decentraland's third annual Metaverse Art Week, curators turned to new ways to utilise digital space to bring more interactive and true-to-life experiences of art.

The metaverse world modelled its latest virtual festival after the real-life Biennale art event, which utilises public space to display art. Visitors to the in-real-life (IRL) festival can walk around spacious pavilions and working parts of the city to engage with artists and brands outside of traditional gallery walls.

"The core value of this year's art week is to unfroze the art in spatial experiences. For that, what we did is to repurpose public space in Decentraland," says Giovanna Graziosi Casimiro, events and community producer at Decentraland.

In the digital world, art galleries and exhibitions aren't new. Digital non-fungible token (NFT) art galleries have been implemented by companies like Spatial, and traditional art houses like Sotheby's are active in hosting NFT art events.

In Decentraland alone, there are six major art galleries hosted by big-name NFT marketplaces such as Variable, SuperRare and KnownOrigin. What makes this event different is the way in which visitors interact with the art. Decentraland expects sizeable engagement based on metrics from past events such as Metaverse Fashion Week, which saw 108,000 unique visitors, according to the foundation.

The quality of metaverse events and avatars is a major discussion in the industry after feedback regarding quality in events like Metaverse Fashion Week. Mark Zuckerberg of Meta was recently met with criticism over the quality of avatars available in its new digital experiences. Interactive art galleries, poetry readings and digital performances are the next frontier in metaverse engagement.