On a Delicate Mission

For the temporary exhibition "On a Delicate Mission – Tales of Swiss Diplomacy" at the National Museum Zurich, iart realised the table for a diplomatic banquet. The decked table was so precisely overlaid and extended by a projection with moving images that a paradoxical blend of reality and fiction was created.

The unlit candles cast a flickering light on the table cloth; virtual wine was poured into real glasses from bottles that could be seen but not touched and disembodied hands grasped the cutlery, cutting up illusory meat on plates that really existed. The use of surround sound effects heightened the banquet's spatial impact: invisible people with virtual hands conversed in various languages, to some extent contributing historical meaning to what was happening.