World Premiere at the Leopold Museum: Egon Schiele – A Personal Encounter

03.04.2025

Virtual Reality Experience Allows for an Immersive Journey Into Vienna Around 1900

On 2nd April 2025, the Director of the Leopold Museum Hans-Peter Wipplinger and the award-winning Austrian filmmaker Gerda Leopold hosted a world premiere. Following a production period of several years, the first interactive virtual reality experience by AMILUX FILM was presented at the Leopold Museum, inviting visitors to embark on a unique encounter with this eminent protagonist of Austrian Expressionism.

Participants enter the scene on a cold October night of 1918, shortly before the end of World War I, when Vienna was plagued by disease and hunger. In a feverish delirium, Egon Schiele – played by Lukas Watzl – draws a portrait of the visitor in his studio while engaging them in conversation. Through flashbacks, participants experience key moments of Schiele’s life.

The virtual reality experience Egon Schiele – A Personal Encounter is not only an homage to Egon Schiele’s artistic oeuvre but also an innovative opportunity to experience his life up close. Schiele tells stories and asks questions, with the visitors’ answers affecting the ensuing plot. For around 30 minutes, participants find themselves in Vienna around 1900, experiencing the world of a young artist, his visions, his oeuvre and the resistance he encountered.

Details on Egon Schiele – A Personal Encounter

The virtual reality experience is shown daily (except Tuesdays and Fridays) in the auditorium of the Leopold Museum, on level -1, at 11 am, 12 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm and 4 pm, and is suitable for participants aged 14 and over. Available in German or English, it can be experienced for free with a valid museum ticket or an annual pass. Time slots for a maximum of 15 people are available exclusively at the museum’s ticket desk.

Leopold Museum Shows Comprehensive Schiele Exhibition Until 13th July

Featuring nearly 300 works by Egon Schiele, 48 of which are paintings, the Leopold Museum is home to the world’s most eminent and comprehensive collection of works by this exceptional artist. Since 28th March, the museum is dedicating a large-scale monographic exhibition to the central artist of its collection: Changing Times. Egon Schiele’s Last Years: 1914–1918.

World Premiere

The world premiere of the virtual reality experience, hosted by Hans-Peter Wipplinger and Gerda Leopold, in the presence of the Leopold Museum’s board member Saskia Leopold and the museum’s Commercial Director Moritz Stipsicz, was attended by numerous prominent guests, including actors Luise Aschenbrenner, Konstanze Breitebner, Mercedes Echerer, Luise Hennig, Leslie Malton, Manuel Mairhofer, Felix von Manteuffel, Karim Rahoma and Lukas Watzl, cellist Rudolf Leopold, ORF presenter Claudia Stöckl, PR expert Elisabeth Himmer-Hirnigel, manager Gery Keszler, Camillo Spiegelfeld, Belvedere curator Verena Gamper, art expert Paul Asenbaum, the curator of the Egon Schiele Museum in Tulln Christian Bauer, art restorer Manfred Siems, Maximilian Dreihann-Holenia, Nils Kirchhoff, research scientist Kai Erenli, Ursula Gass (Wien Museum), gallery owners Herbert Giese and Alexander Giese, architect Willi Fürst, art historian Stefan Üner, Kathryn and Leopold Nenning, Mina and Kira Okazaki Haffner, Marie Therese Strasser, Christoph Thun-Hohenstein, pharmaceuticals marketing GM Katarina Béasse-Barnas and consultant Arnaud Béasse, and many others.

Director and Producer

Gerda Leopold studied painting at the Berlin University of the Arts from 1979 to 1985. She founded her production company AMILUX Film in 2014 in Vienna, and has since worked as a producer of feature films and virtual reality experiences.

Link to photographs from the opening night

Link to the trailer

https://vimeo.com/1066104009