Louvre Abu Dhabi has launched the Quantum Dome Project, a 25-minute VR experience enabling up to 10 visitors at the same time to digitally experience three artefacts from the museum’s collection.
Now open to the public and running for 12 months, Louvre Abu Dhabi’s Quantum Dome Project will be housed in the museum’s Lower Forum and reflects its commitment to making art and culture resonate in new, unexpected ways. The VR experience uses wireless, full-body motion tracking to move freely through vivid, walkable digital environments.
Visitors will embark on a time-travel mission inspired by science fiction, where past and future collide in an immersive journey through art and history. Guided by a cinematic narrative, visitors will experience centuries and rediscover a selection of masterpieces from the Louvre Abu Dhabi collection. The experience brings to life the historical worlds behind three significant artefacts from the museum’s permanent collection, each carefully researched and digitally reimagined including The Portrait of Emperor Augustus, Imperial Rome, 1st century CE, where visitors can experience the colonnades of the Augustus Forum and encounter the scale, power, and symbolism of Roman imperial rule.
Visitors will also be offered a digital experience of a manuscript page from De Materia Medica, Medieval Baghdad, 13th century CE, where they can step into the library of the House of Wisdom, where scholars gathered to unlock the secrets of medicine, nature, and the cosmos. Finally, visitors will also gain access to the Four Mirror Armour | Mughal India, 17th–18th century CE, experiencing tranquil waters past the Jal Mahal, immersed in the refined world of the Mughal empire.
The experience will immerse participants in a radical new form of storytelling where they can experience vast virtual historical landscapes. In addition, the journey is not an individual one, but a shared one: participants see one another, interact, and advance together through a narrative that blends discovery, learning, and cutting-edge technology.
Grounded in real artefacts and cultural contexts, each virtual environment invites visitors to engage with the past as a lived, multi-sensory experience. Whether tracing the architectural majesty of ancient Rome, the intellectual vitality of Abbasid Baghdad, or the artistic grandeur of Mughal India, Quantum Dome Project allows history to unfold in real time.
Marine Botton, Interpretation and Creative Content Senior Officer at Louvre Abu Dhabi, said: "Quantum Dome Project is an extension of our mission to connect cultures and communities through meaningful, innovative experiences. As a museum rooted in storytelling and universality, we are proud to offer an experience where visitors can engage with history not as distant observers but as active participants. This project embodies Louvre Abu Dhabi’s commitment to using technology to creating powerful and accessible cultural initiatives bridging time and bringing human stories vividly to life in a shared experience.”
Developed with Small Creative Studio in France, Quantum Dome Project is available in Arabic, English, and French, and suitable for visitors aged eight and above. It’s designed to engage a wide range of audiences, including solo visitors, families, students, tech lovers, and cultural explorers, through one shared journey.
