The North Carolina Museum of Art presents You Are Here: Light, Color, and Sound Experiences, featuring immersive art installations by 14 contemporary artists, April 7 through July 22, 2018. You Are Here includes large-scale light works, sound installations, video works, room-size environments, and site-specific projects. The artists—Bill Viola, Janet Cardiff, Durham-based Heather Gordon, Anila Agha, and many more—employ a diversity of media to create intriguing experiences that engage the senses, activate the imagination, and provide connections between the visitor and the work of art.

“You Are Here brings contemporary art to the NCMA on a scale that has never been done before,” says Director Larry Wheeler. “These transformative, immersive spaces will delight art lovers, technology enthusiasts, and families. It’s more than an exhibition—it’s an experience.”  

You Are Here takes over an entire floor of the NCMA’s temporary exhibition galleries and transforms the landscape in the Ann and Jim Goodnight Museum Park, creating a campuswide presentation of contemporary experiential art. Some installations are delightfully low-tech, transforming ordinary materials into awe-inspiring visuals, while others make use of experimental new media, fusing art and technology in interactive works that change in response to the viewer.

You Are Here presents pioneering video, light, and sound installations by Bill Viola, James Turrell, Janet Cardiff, Olafur Eliasson, and Ragnar Kjartansson. Works by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Jim Campbell, and Theo Eshetu employ experimental technology, custom electronics, and digital media. Mixed-media installations by Anila Agha, Soo Sunny Park, Mickalene Thomas, and Heather Gordon use low-tech, nontraditional materials. You Are Here also takes visitors outdoors to explore large-scale video projects by Austria-based artist collective OMAi and interactive sculptures by Sam Falls.

“You Are Here will change the way you experience art,” says Chief Curator and Curator of Contemporary Art Linda Dougherty. “You’ll encounter art that comes to life only with your presence, art that invites you to participate, art that is not complete without you—this is art that needs you.”

The exhibition includes special events to engage the community, such as a 10-day residency by OMAi, featuring their Tagtool app. The residency will use projections created by OMAi as well as works that visitors can create by drawing on mobile tablets connected to a projector. These site-specific works will be projected onto the side of the Museum’s East Building and complemented by adult and teen workshops, a family day, and four themed outdoor community events. The community events feature Tagtool sessions for visitors; performances by local artists, musicians, and dancers; and a selection of food trucks on site. Themes include Underwater Love on May 17; Magical Forest on May 18; Space is the Place on May 24; and The Incredible Machine on May 25.