Cardi 3D

Cardi Gallery: I Dormienti in Real-Time 3D

For Cardi Gallery's exhibition of Mimmo Paladino's 'I Dormienti' in Milan, WideVR digitized all 32 terracotta sculptures through a high-precision photogrammetry process that captures every surface detail in three dimensions. The sculptures - which evoke the bodies preserved at Pompeii and Herculaneum but are rooted in Henry Moore's drawings of British war shelters - were then placed inside a faithful virtual reconstruction of the gallery space, accessible directly on the Cardi Gallery website for the entire duration of the show.

Visitors could navigate the virtual rooms freely, rotating around each statue and examining fine details from any angle - exactly as they would during a physical visit. The technology powering the experience, real-time 3D streaming, was borrowed from the gaming industry and applied here for the first time to a contemporary art context. Unlike pre-rendered virtual tours, real-time streaming delivers dynamic, interactive visuals at a level of quality that static photography or video simply cannot match.

As Nicolo Cardi, CEO and president of Cardi Gallery, put it: 'At a time when it is essential to think about new ways of participating in exhibition events, this initiative aims to bring an additional tool to bring the public closer to art.' Featured on WIRED Italy, the project became a reference point for how galleries can extend their reach without compromising on the quality of the experience.