It took almost a quarter of a century to create the ‘museum’ of the Royal Collections, which today bears the name of the Royal Collections Gallery. This nuance in the gives us an idea of the spirit of the project: to serve as a showcase for a huge heritage, which spans five centuries of art history thanks to the collections treasured by the Habsburgs and Bourbons and which, unlike other monarchies, they are public.

To bring the collection even closer to the public, and as a climax to the inaugural event of this new museum center, National Heritage entrusted us with an audiovisual show. The chosen setting was the facade of the Armory Yard of the Royal Palace of Madrid, the largest in Western Europe, and very close to the new building of the Gallery, which is work of the architects Tuñon + Mansilla.

During two evenings, more than 45.000 spectators enjoyed a videomapping show, open to the public and free of charge. In this show, the visual content is divided into six scenes, each dominated by a different color parameter: from the initial black and white to the sublime golden hue of the thread used in many of the Royal Collections’ tapestries, to the vibrant red of Lucrecia taking her own life (Maratti) or the deep blue of the midday sky in the Allegory of Noon (Mengs).

The narrative link between the scenes, where various objects from the collections are also abundant, is established through the musical composition. Orchestrated, instrumental, and cyclical in nature, the music was specially created for the occasion by Olivier Arson, a French artist who has been awarded two Goyas for his work on the films As Bestas (2023) and El Reino (2019).

The lighting and staging design is based on visual effects related to the sounds of the soundtrack. The lasers, on the other hand, act as tracers, creating “points of light” according to the color of the projected works, and generating visual effects in complete synchrony with the music.

In conclusion, it’s an innovative way to bring together five hundred years of art history through technology, showcasing collections that belong to everyone as part of this unique experience.