According to a 2020 study, they are routinely used by around 3.1 billion people, their market is worth around 336 billion dollars which, by 2027, could reach 522 billion and their applications now go beyond pure entertainment: in Great Britain, a virtual reality platform based on the Fortnite graphics engine is used for armed forces training. And since they are now also considered a form of art, it is right that video games also have their museum recognition. And so, at the National Cinema Museum in Turin, Video Game Zone was born, one of the first permanent exhibition areas, in Italy and in the world, dedicated to video games within a museum institution.
The video game, a question of imagination
Set up in a chapel in the Temple Hall, the heart of the Mole Antonelliana, VIDEO GAME ZONE will open from 2 July 2024 and is curated by Domenico De Gaetanodirector of the National Cinema Museum, e Fabio Viola, in collaboration with the University of Turin. «After the rooms dedicated to VR, the National Cinema Museum opens up to new languages that can dialogue transversally and address an increasingly wider audience», he declared Enzo Ghigo, president of the National Cinema Museum of Turin. «We are going through a moment of great and rapid transformations, it is also up to us, as a museum, to be able to intercept them in time and make them available to our many visitors».
Cinema and video games are based on structures and pursue different purposes, even if there may be many points of contact, considering both the technologies used and the numerous adaptations and borrowings, such as the famous series Resident Evil. But the points of tangency also go deeper and transversally. «If cinema with its moving image has shaped the collective imagination through visual narration, video games have extended this imaginary, offering not only stories to watch, but also to experience and influence directly thanks to their nature as an interactive image» , underlined Fabio Viola, co-curator of the exhibition. «The introduction of video games at the National Cinema Museum is not only a formal step in the recognition as a full-fledged art form but aims to underline and stimulate the dialogue between different but absolutely complementary art forms, showing the intersections, the influences mutual and the unique expressive potential of these two mediums that have marked the 20th and 21st centuries”.
The exhibition itinerary, between gameplay and concept art
The exhibition itinerary allows the visitor to immerse himself in the world of video games thanks to a central projection that offers a montage of films and TV series that have quoted, paid homage to or were inspired by video games and gaming culture. Four audio-video stations show the intros and trailers of the video games, dev. diaries that tell the story of the creation process, archive images relating to the making of and game play that give an insight into the evolution of video game aesthetics and production techniques: from rotoscope to the introduction of motion capture and live action. Display cases, containing concept art and notes, sketches and design documents, as well as pre-production assets and props from the various videogame narrative universes, complete the setup.
In addition to the creation of a dedicated area, the National Cinema Museum has undertaken an acquisition campaign linked to the world of gaming, which is not limited to the playable version but includes rare and unpublished production and game design materials, such as concept art, manuals technical notes, storyboards, preparatory drawings, scripts and objects used internally in the creative phases before release. These materials of high museum value, which are often lost or deleted, are fundamental testimonies and underline how the process that leads to the creation of a video game is, in many cases, similar to the creation of a film.
The first tranche of acquisitions includes 13 titles, more or less recent and of different genres, from Action RPG to platform, all iconic and innovative: ALAN WAKE 2 (Remedy Entertainment, 2023), ANOTHER WORLD (Éric Chahi, 1991), ASSASSIN’S CREED® MIRAGE (Ubisoft, 2023), BRAID (Number None, 2008), BROKEN SWORD (Revolution Software, 1996), DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR’S CUT (Kojima Productions, 2021), DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN (Quantic Dream, 2018), FINAL FANTASY VII (Square Enix, 1997), GONE HOME (Fullbright, 2013), HEAVY RAIN (Quantic Dream, 2010), LIFE IS STRANGE (Square Enix, 2015), PRINCE OF PERSIA (Jordan Mechner, 1989), RED DEAD REDEMPTION (Rockstar Games, 2010). The acquisition plan will be progressively implemented with new works, including HER STORY (Sam Barlow, 2015), TELLING LIES (Annapurna Interactive, 2019) and IMMORTALITY (Half Mermaid, 2022).
David Cage’s masterclass
The new area will be inaugurated by a Masterclass with David Cage, founder of Quantic Dream, on July 2nd, starting at 11.30 am, in the Aula del Tempio of the Mole Antonelliana. Knight of the French Legion of Honour, visionary artist with a thirty-year career, the author, born in 1969, has designed video games considered among the most innovative in the sector, such as Fahrenheit (2005), Heavy Rain (2010), Beyond: Two Souls (2012) e Detroit: Become Human (2018). Cage will participate in a discussion with director Domenico De Gaetano and Fabio Viola, offering his own creative vision and exploring the convergences between cinema and video games. At the end of the Masterclass, he will receive the Stella della Mole award for his fundamental contribution and pioneering approach to narrative development at the intersection of cinema and video games.
«In my career I have always supported the idea that video games are a form of creative expression, just like cinema or literature», commented David Cage. «For 66 years the National Cinema Museum of Turin has been exploring the impact of cinema on society and the opening of a permanent space dedicated to video games is a milestone for interactive media. As a creator, I am honored to have our games Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human on display and am excited to celebrate the opening of the exhibition with a Masterclass. It will be an opportunity to discuss how video games and cinema influence each other to push the boundaries of storytelling.”
