Optimist, in collaboration with creative director Neal Callow, has created '007 ELEMENTS,' a world-first cinematic installation that sits more than 9,800 feet above sea level at the peak of Gaislachkogl Mountain, high above the town of Sölden in Austria. Both an immersive and informative experience, the fundamentals of a Bond film are extracted and brought to life in a unique, modern way using theatrical presentation, cinematic sound design and dynamic interactive installations.
"Unlike a traditional museum where visitors look at objects hung on the wall, the bond museum breaks from the traditional subject object relationship in favor of an immersive experience that merges the spatial design with the presented content," commented Tino Schaedler, Chief Design Officer, Optimist. "The visitors find themselves fully surrounded and within the curated narrative; It presented an opportunity to design and build the architecture of the museum from scratch. We thought of it as walkable choreography where the spaces are interwoven with the experience.
"The interior are spaces are designed like a cinematic edited sequence. The spaces change from introvert to extrovert and through their change of proportion, size and rhythm add to the emotional aspect of the experience. We spent a lot of time analyzing the Bond movies and synthesized a Bond formula that pretty much all films follow. The beautiful title sequences, the larger than life characters, the cars and gadgets, the incredible locations, amazing set designs, and of course the audacious action sequences. To establish the conceptual backbone we dedicated one of the chambers in 007 elements to one part of the Bond formula."
The installation focuses on SPECTRE, which was shot in Sölden, but also features other titles in the James Bond franchise. The name 007 ELEMENTS reflects the visitor's journey through a series of galleries, each distilling the craft of the signature elements that define a James Bond film. Combining state-of-the-art technology with stark contemporary architecture, the Optimist team was able to create a first of its kind, captivating experience with a dramatic cinematic soundscape set in nature's awe-inspiring surroundings.
Photography: Kristopher Grunert