CEO of VR-All-Art one of the panelists at Deloitte’s Art & Finance Conference

The theme of this year’s Art & Finance Conference, organized by Deloitte and held in Monaco, was “New Collector Trends in Art & Finance”. Industry experts from around the world spoke about estate planning, art on yachts, private virtual museums, opportunities and challenges for collectors, and how they can better manage their collections. Blockchain and the future of the art market were also some of the topics discussed. Deloitte Luxembourg and ArtTactic presented their Art & Finance report 2019 at the event.

Speaking about “Private museums: trends and the impact of virtual reality”, Vitomir Jevremovic, CEO of VR-All-Art, was invited to be one of the panelists at the event, alongside other prominent names in the industry. The founder of ArtSolutions and CEO of MasterArt, Henry Blundell, moderated the panel discussion, asking each of the participants about their backgrounds, experience with virtual private museums, and predictions for the future.

Sylvain Levy, the leading collector of Chinese contemporary art and co-founder of dslcollection, shared his experience with creating one of the first private museums in vr and expressed his desire to share his collection with the public. He pointed out that the trend of owning private museums is slowly but surely spreading as collectors grow more aware of all of the advantages of virtual reality museums. Remind the audience of the importance of art in our society and culture, Sylvain added, “It is not art that should serve technology, but technology that should serve art.”

Vitomir explained why he believes that virtual reality is a good solution for the art sector, especially for museums as it helps them grow into truly global institutions and enhances their educational impact. Joël Kremer agreed that VR museums have a significant impact on people by allowing anyone to experience art they might not be able to see in brick and mortar museums. As the co-founder and director of The Kremer Collection, as well as the initiator of the VR Kremer Museum, he revealed that his ambition is to provide the ‘museum experience’ to as wide a public as possible.

On the subject of implementing virtual reality within the art industry, Vitomir said, “Maybe it is our job today to fight for the arts and culture space to be present in the digital age.” As we are on the cusp of a VR revolution, he expressed how important it is to establish arts and culture within the virtual space otherwise we risk missing our unique chance to join this ever-growing trend.

As both Vitomir and Joël have backgrounds in IT, they shared their predictions for the future of VR in the arts and culture space, assuring the audience that the technology is improving each day, becoming overall more affordable and accessible. “The moment is now,” said Vitomir, explaining how with every new upgrade the technology is becoming easier to use. One of the prime examples of headsets developed primarily for the purpose of commercializing virtual reality is the newly released Oculus Quest. They expect that everyone will start using virtual reality in the near future and won’t even notice the change taking place.

Allegra Shorto, art director of Khora Contemporary – Faurschou Foundation, spoke about her vision to introduce virtual reality to the art world and encourage artists and institutions to embrace innovative digital technologies. “Involving artists in the process of developing this new technology at such an early stage could diversify the way that we think of this technology,” she said. She also stressed how important it is for art to be widely accessible and that VR is one of the main ways to achieve that goal. “The potential of the technology to democratize art and transport it to locations where you wouldn’t normally be able to see the art is important to me,” Allegra explained.

The VR-All-Art team gave a live demonstration of the platform, allowing the conference attendees to visit virtual reality museums and galleries and experience the technology in action. Many thanks to Serbia Creates for supporting VR-All-Art on this journey.

VR-All-Art is honored to have been recognized as an innovator in the VR and arts space and invited to be a part of the Art & Finance Conference. We continue to strive toward initiating the evolution of the arts and culture sphere, as well as the adoption of new technologies within the art industry.