Guggenheim makes art more accessible to visually impaired

Bilbao, Spain, Jan 26 (EFE).- The Guggenheim museum in the northern Spanish city of Bilbao on Wednesday unveiled a model of Jeff Koons’s sculpture ‘Bouquet of Tulips’ that is accessible for people who are visually impaired.

The 1:16 scale model of the sculpture, a bouquet of multicolor balloon flowers blown up to gargantuan proportions, stays true to Koon’s original piece while facilitating tactile access for visitors who are blind or have low vision.

“The replication has the exact same texture as the original sculpture so that people with visual impairments can perceive it as if it were the original,” sub-director of the Guggenheim museum, Rogelio, Diez, said.

The miniature model is made with the same material as the original, polished stainless steel, and was developed using digital tools such as a scanner and 3D printer.

The original colors have also been reproduced.

“It is a different sensation, of joy, not of sadness,” Carmen Garcia, a woman who has lost her sight, tells Efe.

The replication of Koon’s Tulips is the most recent out of the five sculptures that have been replicated for blind people at the Guggenheim.

The other sculptures include Koon’s ‘Puppy’, Louise Bourgeois’s ‘Spider’ and Anish Kapoor’s ‘Tall Tree & The Eye’. EFE

as/mp/ks