Bombas Gens Centre d'Arts Digitals
Bombas Gens Centre d’Arts Digitals is a pioneering cultural space in Valencia. It is the first stable and permanent centre in the city dedicated to the exhibition and dissemination of immersive and audiovisual projects, which connect the artistic and technological worlds in all possible media. It is a place for the confluence, hybridisation and dialogue between art, science, and technology. But also a place for research, experimentation and the promotion of creation.
In this new phase, the renovated warehouses, that used to house the old hydraulic pump factory in the Marxalenes district of Valencia, are full of experiences. The facilities are being upgraded with the state-of-the-art technologies and equipment.
The public, at the heart of it all
The visitor stops being a spectator. He becomes a protagonist, an actively participant, interacting with the work, entering into it. Turning the unchangeable and unalterable concept of traditional cultural scenarios on its head, the new Bombas Gens evolves naturally towards the paradigm of digital culture; responding to new times and new audiences, to their way of living, of understanding and perceiving reality and of relating to the world.
The entire public is captivated by the current artistic narrative and transforms its relationship with the work, making it an immersive experience and experimenting through extended reality, with virtual reality in the metaverse, large-format projections, interactive installations, holograms, artificial intelligence… Bombas Gens expands like an infinite universe, without limits, exploring all the new dimensions towards an advanced museography for all audiences (children, adults, families, students, specialised audiences, etc.).
A space with a life of its own
Bombas Gens is understood as an art centre, responsible and aware of the value of the physical work, proposing a revision of it, based on it, often including it and transforming it into other formats. But above all, it is a dynamic space, open to all new visions, forms, disciplines and means, to newly created digital works, to emerging artists in the field and to references. A centre reborn on fertile ground, a generator of creativity and its own content, with the capacity to produce and exhibit, with the intention of experimenting and innovating. In addition, it has an explicit commitment to the internationalisation of local talent, from Valencia to the world, as well as from the world to Valencia.
It is a welcoming and structuring place, which promotes projects linked to the city and the territory. It aims to create a network with its community and surroundings, with the collective and associative fabric, which also seeks to link up with other cultural initiatives and institutions. A meeting place for all proposals related to the arts and new-generation technologies, with a lively programme that complements the exhibitions offered with events, activities and specialised training programmes.
Layers of Reality
Bombas Gens Centre d’Arts Digitals is a project by Layers of Reality, a studio specialising in the immersive content creation that offers new memorable experiences, which will transform and revolutionise the traditional concept of art, defining the future of museums and cultural spaces.
Layers of Reality aims to lead the new relationship between society and augmented reality technologies through the research, creation, production, exhibition and distribution of relevant content using all possible media.
The new digital arts centre in the Marxalenes district is the third one promoted by Layers of Reality. In 2019, the IDEAL Centre d’Arts Digitals was opened in Barcelona, one of the first specialised centres in Europe; and a few years later the MAD Madrid Artes Digitales, in the Matadero cultural space.
The aim now is to promote a close relationship between these three centres, exploiting all possible synergies to become one of the strongest axes leading one of the most important creation and exhibition hubs in Southern Europe.
Fundació Per Amor a l'Art
The Fundació Per Amor a l’Art has entrusted Layers of Reality with the new phase of the Bombas Gens Centre d’Art. The aim is to transform it by 2024 into a pioneering cultural space in the city of Valencia, specialising in audiovisual and immersive exhibition projects, while maintaining the Foundation’s original objectives: to share art and culture. A longstanding proposal.
The Fundació Per Amor a l’Art was officially created on 20th May 2014, as a project of the Soler-Lloret family, born from the desire to promote positive changes in our environment. An honest family project with a real vocation to share with society, through art, research and social work, part of what it gives us, starting from the neighbourhood and going as far as it can.
The building was acquired by their promoters in 2014, with the aim of restoring it to its former glory and giving it a new lease of life by making it available to the Foundation. After its restoration, the heritage complex houses, next to its headquarters a new building dedicated to its social action programme; an area dedicated to the Wilson Team Coordination (oriented to the research of this rare disease); and the Bombas Gens art centre which has occupied the five refurbished rooms, between 2017 and 2023.
In 2024, the Foundation’s artistic activity opens up a new path directly linked to the future of art in its new forms and media, addressing all types of audiences, with new sensibilities and ways of understanding artistic expression. This will undoubtedly help visitors to acquire new experiences and enjoy art in all its aspects, bringing them closer to the world of art from an innovative perspective and giving them access to new works offered in the language of a new world.
