Museums are windows into human civilization. From the cultural heritage and treasures of the four continents to the modern integration of new media technology, museums allow visitors to explore almost any topic imaginable. A CARNIVAL OF FANTASIES: A Special Exhibition of 21st Century Museums at the Southern Branch of the NPM is co-organized by the National Palace Museum (NPM), Musée du Louvre, Tate Modern, Musée de l'Orangerie, Alte Nationalgalerie, and the Mucha Foundation. It will soon send you on a fantastic journey through civilization across the physical and virtual realms.

The word "carnival" originated from the medieval period and is widely used to mean "celebration," while festivals in the East can also be found in genre paintings throughout history. Mikhail Bakhtin, the 20th Century Soviet philosopher, believed that "carnivals" were a release of the spirit and senses. Bakhtin's ideas cohere nicely with the exhibition theme as new media art brings visitors a perception of illusion and polysensory experiences. In addition to presenting the National Palace Museum's award-winning virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) programs and other new media artworks, the exhibition will also feature incredible virtual reality experiences from leading museums around the world. This exhibition is divided into four sections: "River of Time," "NPM Voyage," "The Louvre Station" and "Aesthetic World". The other worldly features of the exhibited works are also embedded in the exhibition's Chinese title, with the word " 奇 " symbolizing the museum's rare and invaluable collections, and the word " 幻 " referring to the virtual fantasies created with modern technology.

As we enter the exhibition, we will first step into "River of Time," wherein space and time unfold through dynamic projections, illuminating a pathway into the digital fantasies presented in this exhibition. "NPM Voyage" welcomes visitors to board a "sailing vessel" on a journey back in time. In this section, visitors can immerse themselves in the VR recreation of Huai-Su's Autobiography and experience the unrestrained spirit of wild cursive script, or step into the immersive VR recreation of Up the River During Qingming and revel in the scenery along the historical Bian River. Visitors can also experience the majestic vitality of the classical Chinese landscape and its aesthetic capacity "to amble, to behold, to wander, and to abide" in the interactive theater Into the Painting. At "the Louvre Station," visitors approach Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass, a VR production created to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's death. The VR experience enables visitors to go beyond the painting's tempered glass case and walk straight into the mystery hidden within the masterpiece. In "Aesthetic World," Musée de l'Orangerie's Claude Monet – The Water Lily Obsession invites viewers to visit Monet's garden in Giverny and enter the water-lily pond beautifully painted by Monet. Further into this section, audience members encounter the expansive landscapes of German romanticism with Alte Nationalgalerie's Monk by the Sea; while the Tate Modern's Modigliani VR Experience: The Ochre Atelier takes viewers into the final Parisian studio and home of the modernist painter. Mucha's The Slavs in Their Original Homeland from the Mucha Foundation will also make its world premiere in this exhibition and guarantee an epic journey filled with history, battles, and characters from the legendary painting series.

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