The work which is the basis for this installation, Hand with reflecting sphere, was created in the studio of the artist’s Roman home in the via Poerio, which can be seen reflected in the sphere. Speaking of this, Escher commented with a good dose of self-irony that ego is invariably the center of an artist’s world. When reflected in the sphere, straight lines become curved and the sphere “bends” reality, which is one of Escher’s favorite ideas. With this installation, a visitor can immerse themselves in one of Escher’s iconic works, “reflected” in the center of the sphere. Using a pedal on the floor, the visitor can make a screengrab and take a picture to keep or share on social media. 

The installation lets a visitor experience the feeling of being inside Escher’s incredible work, Rind. Standing in front of a screen, a visitor will see their face come apart like the rind shown by the artist, thus becoming the subject of the work. Using a pedal on the floor, the visitor can make a screengrab and take a picture to keep or share on social media. 

The Penrose triangle, also known as the Penrose tribar, is an impossible triangular object, an optical illusion consisting of a drawing of an object which cannot actually exist as a solid object. It was popularized in the Fifties by the famous mathematician and Nobel Prize winner Roger Penrose, who described it as “impossibility in its purest form”. This figure is found in Escher’s work; he was well known for his fascination with drawing impossible objects. Maurits has developed a software to create a structure which, seen from a certain angle, creates a trick of perspective and gives the illusion of a Penrose triangle. A visitor, sitting on this structure, will see themselves, shown in the center of this impossible figure.

Inside the Relativity Room, a visitor can experience the effects of relativity. This room uses different perspectives to show visitors an image of themselves as very short or very tall, based on the position they choose. To do this, Maurits has developed a software which calculates the exact measurements of the room, considering the available space for the installation.

This animation sequence was produced to bring Escher’s famous work Relativity to life. The small figures shown here are not disturbed, in their daily activities, by the impossible architecture shown in the work of art. The animation is fascinating because viewers are constantly wondering where the figures might go or where they might reappear. Relativity consists of three coexisting worlds. Some parts of the image are correct when the print is hanging vertically, others when it is hung left side up and others again if it is right side up. Cornelius V.S. Roosevelt (a grandson of Theodore Roosevelt and the first great collector of Escher’s work in the United States) had hung Relativity on a swiveling support.

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Canon No.1 of the work Musikalisches Opfer, BWV 1079 by Johann Sebastian Bach, played by Marco Facchin.

Escher’s tessellations or inlaid figures have often been linked to Johan Sebastian Bach’s canons or fugues. In canons 1 and 2 of his Musikalisches Opfer, written in 1747, Bach uses a counterpoint technique in which two voices play the same part but, while one voice follows the notes in the customary manner, the other plays the same part backwards, starting with the last note and ending with the first, creating a specular composition. Just as each note of the canon must be in harmony with its specular note, each element in a tessellation must match another, specular element. Escher was particularly fond of Bach’s music, which he would listen to while he worked.

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This video was produced to explain the concept of tessellation or inlay and give a better idea of how these images are produced. Tessellation corresponds to the intuitive idea of paving, meaning the covering over of a surface with shapes that leave no empty spaces but also do not overlap. The forms used, known as tessellations, can take any shape, under the single condition that they be connected, with no space between them. The video shows an example of each of the 17 possible combinations.

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The work Print Gallery by Escher alters reality and places the observer inside the work itself. Escher couldn’t figure out how to finish the work, but he knew that the observer had to be positioned in the center of the image, looking at the work and seeing themselves, repeatedly. The installation lets the visitor take the place of the observer of the work of art and guides them in understanding the Droste effect, which is a special effect in which an image recursively appears within itself to infinity.

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The Bond of Union installation recreates the peel effect as in Rind, but with two people! In fact, the two subjects will be bound by a single ribbon. Using a pedal on the floor, the visitors can make a screengrab and take a picture to keep or share on social media.