The digital Guernica that arrives in Tokyo on a giant screen

Contemplating Guernica is a unique experience.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
16 August 2022 Tuesday 09:48
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The digital Guernica that arrives in Tokyo on a giant screen

Contemplating Guernica is a unique experience. In Japan they have it clear and, aware that it is not so easy to visit it, since it is hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, they have installed their own.

From this Tuesday, in Tokyo, at the NTT Intercommunication Center, the famous painting by Pablo Picasso can be seen on a 325-inch ultra-high resolution screen and at a scale almost identical to that of the iconic canvas thanks to an innovative project led carried out by the Japanese chain NHK and the firm NTT.

The largest work of the genius from Malaga is the protagonist of the exhibition Llegó el Guernica, which allows the visitor to contemplate it and immerse itself in its details through the process of filming and broadcasting in 8K definition until August 28. The state broadcaster NHK uses this ultra-high resolution technology to record cultural assets and works of art with the aim of transmitting them for future generations. It has already used this image standard to broadcast the Tokyo Olympics.

Due to the pandemic, the Japanese chain recorded the oil painting remotely, connecting from Japan with a local camera team at the Reina Sofía.

The "Guernica" was painted by Picasso in 1937 inspired by the bombings during the Spanish Civil War on that Basque town and, in addition to being one of the most famous canvases in the world, it is the main attraction of the Madrid museum since it was transferred there in 1992 .

"We must ask ourselves what 'Guernica' evokes 85 years after the tragedy of that bombing. Reflecting on its meaning is an urgent task, when we are once again entering an era of war," said the art historian and professor at the University of Waseda Yasujiro Otaka at the opening of the exhibition.