performances. He went on to become a renowned photographer and now incorporates all his experience into a stunning and immersive marriage between various forms of art.

sM | What’s your experience watching the success of Immersive Van Gogh and how well it was received by the public?

MS — I think that this work on van Gogh was painful, in a way, because this was my third time doing an immersive exhibit. And this time, I decided to speak of van Gogh as a man. I think that what I was surprised about was that people actually understood and realized that I was talking about presenting van Gogh as a man.

sM | Why did Klimt feel like a natural extension of van Gogh? Did any differences between them make this work challenging?

MS — Actually, it was a pretty natural extension because I thought about doing Klimt from the beginning. I thought about a trilogy of the three artists that, for me, are the best of the 19th and 20th century. One was van Gogh, the second one was Klimt, and the third one was Frida Kahlo. The real challenge at this point is to continue to speak, not only about the art, but mostly about the people behind the art. I think that I was successful in this, but of course the public will tell us if the experiment of this trilogy was really a success.

sM | How were you able to surprise yourself and try something new, while meeting the expectations from the success of Immersive Van Gogh?

MS — These artists represented the idea of big changes for the cultural expectations of their time. I don’t know if I’ll be able to surprise and amaze the audience at the same level. Of course, we’ll see. In fact, with Klimt I brought something new because, for me, it also represents the next stage of the evolution of the immersive art and the emotional realm of immersive art. I always want to go to the next step.

sM | What are other concepts, artists, or ideas that you would like to translate into the immersive space?

MS — Frida is a very interesting artist because she experienced the Russian Revolution and the Industrial Revolution in the United States. She became an icon because she was the first to give her body to the service of her own art and was the first performer in the traditional arts. That’s why she’s still appreciated. So I worked on her being a pop artist—surreal, but also human. I think she is the first female artist shown in an immersive space in North America.

In Klimt’s exhibit, there’s a scene in a painting where two people are trying to kiss but they never connect. I inserted a piece of choreographed dance in the show. These dancers represent what happens in the body the moment you’re going to kiss. There, my background in dance and theatre is being represented in how I make the images dance.