Virtual platform Digital Earth with 15 works of digital art of Russian artists opened on December 8. 

The Foundation for Support of Contemporary Art Winzavod and re:Store, a chain of Apple equipment stores, present a new project on digital art Digital Earth for the presentation of works by the finalists of the contest, held in autumn 2020. 

Leaders in the field of art and technology, Winzavod and the re:Store have teamed up to popularize modern technologies to make them more accessible and support creative potential. Such symbiosis of art and technology allowed to create a new virtual platform, which has no analogues in Russia http://digitalearth.re-store.ru.

The platform was developed by an international team inspired by game-art. Journey through the virtual space, using the computer game engine, is an independent unlimited experience, where each visitor has the freedom to choose his or her own route to view the exhibition, to immerse himself or herself in the world of each artist, to move between the futuristic parts of the full architectural object of the gallery.

Technically, the idea of Digital Earth turned out to be feasible through the use of the open platform Unreal Engine and Pixel Streaming technology, which provides access to the game platform for a large number of viewers, regardless of the quality of Internet connection. Guests are assisted in navigating the gallery by viewers voiced by artificial intelligence. Sound for space was created by an ITSU audio artist. 

In the galleries 15 works of the finalists of the contest are presented. Among them are artists Julia Alexeenkova, Anna Gantimurova, Roman Golovko, Artem Go, Ales Lyalush, Kirill Zakomoldin, Anastasia Kvariani, Danila Lipatov, Alexey Ryabov, Anna Sapunova, Margarita Trushina, Zaurbek Tsugaev, Ksenia Sharapova, Varya Schuka, the group Gray Cake. 

The best works were selected by the expert council of the contest, which included prominent curators and artists in the field of digital visual art: AES+F, Antonio Geusa and Svetlana Taylor. Selection for the exhibition was one of the main criteria to determine the finalists of the competition. The jury included works created using digital technology: animation, video, painting, works created using computer graphics, neural networks, VR and AR.

About the project 

Having united in 2020, the Foundation for Support of Contemporary Art Winzavod and re:Store, a chain of Apple's technology stores, launched the Digital Earth project aimed at developing digital art and opening new names. 

Digital Earth is the name of the concept introduced in the late 1990s by former US Vice President Al Gore. It described the future as a space with open access to all the knowledge, scientific and cultural information that will help people better understand our planet and the impact of human activity on it.

Winners of the contest will receive prizes from the re:Store chain. The award for each author of the work, which took places from 3 to 15, will be a certificate for 10 thousand rubles to buy products at the re:Store. For the second place - a certificate for 50 thousand rubles to buy products in the re:Store. The best of the finalists will receive a grant for participation in the art residence, including all expenses, including flight and accommodation. 

As Tikhon Smykov, president of Inventive Retail Group (re:Store is part of the group), said: "For six years in a row re:Store has been holding exhibitions of contemporary art within the framework of the re:Store digital art project. Finding real gold in the creative flow, opening new names, as well as popularizing mobile content is the goal of this project. This year we have moved to a new stage - together with Vinzavod we are opening an online platform for digital art presentation. We are sure that the online format will give an opportunity to even more artists to show their works to the world".

The Foundation for Support of Contemporary Art Winzavod 

The Foundation was established on the basis of the Winzavod Innovation Center. The President of the Foundation is Sofia Trotsenko. Strategic directions of FSD activities: "Winzavod.New Names", which provides institutional support to emerging artists, and "Winzavod.Obrazovanie", which focuses on projects in the field of education and training of professional specialists for the industry. The Fund for Support of Contemporary Art of Winzavod implements programs that help young artists, develops interaction with the regional professional community, leading Russian and foreign institutions, supports educational projects in the field of contemporary culture and programs in the field of contemporary art, photography, street art, design.

re:Store

www.re-store.ru

re:Store - the world's largest network of monobrand stores format Apple Premium Reseller (APR). It is a part of Inventive Retail Group of LANIT Holding. Today the chain includes more than 85 stores in 23 cities of Russia. The re:Store offers the whole model range of Apple equipment, as well as accessories for it. Buyers can always get acquainted with any product "live", use convenient credit and installment programs, trade-in services, insurance and repair of equipment, participate in the bonus program.