THE RAINBOW CLUB COMES BACK TO LIFE

In the occasion of Fuorisaloni 12. April 2014, the Rock'n'Roll club (Milan, Italy) is pleased to host the project "Do you remember? The Rainbow ", created by multimedia and technology expert in Virtual Reality and 3D, Oliver Pavicevic.

Thanks tothe virtual reality headmounted display Oculus Rift , the event participants will be able to travel back in time, and visit the historic Rainbow club, closed back in 2008 and demolished shortly afterwards to make place for luxury apartments.

The venue is meticulously reconstructed by the artist Oliver Pavicevic through 3D modeling programs, using photographs, blueprints, and then transformed into a fully interactive virtual reality application.

"The Rainbow club was one of the most important, and probably one of the most long-lived underground clubs in Milan,l Italy. It was a landmark of the early '80s, when it was called Odyssey 2001, and hosted concerts by the famed artists like Bauhaus or Nico. In subsequent years, its changed name several times (Prego, Zimba, and since 1993, Rainbow) but has always remained one of the most important music clubs for all those underground musical genres, first of all punk and post- punk. And, of course, it was an important place for the development and promotion of all those subcultures that was influenced by these genres"(Simone Tosoni, author of Emanuela Zuccalà Similar creatures . Milan in the dark in the eighties .)

"Milan is a city in constant transformation, and as such has a short-term memory. This is especially true for all those cultures that are not aligned and revolve around non-commercial music genres: in recent years, many of important clubs in Milan were closed and demolished, such as Plastic, Rolling Stone, Zoe Club and the Rainbow. They were important cultural sites, that hosted some of the the most important international artists, but evidently did not fit into the logic of the market, construction and finance logics, that are rewriting the city landscape. What I wanted to do is remember one of these clubs, Rainbow, faithfully reconstructing it and making it explorable through virtual reality. My project is definitely inspired by nostalgia for what has been lost, but also wants to be an indictment against this cancellation of the places that have shaped the history of the city: an alternative history and certainly not mainstream, but also the history in which I recognize myself, and with me many others. I was fascinated by this very idea of ​​using virtual reality- that is often understood as a synonym for ephemeral - just to remember and make permanent something that is important for me and for the city, as the real - the urban space, the physical fact of volumes and bricks - became the place of oblivion and cancellation "(Oliver Pavicevic)

"Do you remember? The Rainbow " will also be available for PC, Android and iOS devices.