Vasily Klyukin’s In Dante Veritas will be moving to a permanent home in Lucerne, Switzerland at the end of this year. The critically acclaimed collection of sculptures will be displayed at La Collection’Air Art Park, a contemporary art museum and open air gallery at the Hotel Château Gütsch. The official opening will take place in May 2020, coinciding with the 755th anniversary of the Italian poet, Dante.

In Dante Veritas is a large scale, immersive multimedia exhibition by Russian sculptor Vasily Klyukin. It represents a narrative that recreates the nine circles of hell, and includes over 100 multimedia elements, such as sculpture, installation, digital art, audio and light boxes. The exhibitions includes sculptural works, most of which represent negative human traits such as Anger, Gluttony and Betrayal.

The most prominent sculptural pieces are the Four Horsemen of the Modern Apocalypse. The artist has translated the traditional Horsemen (plague, war, hunger and death) into a modern day version: Overpopulation, Misinformation, Extermination and Pollution.

The exhibition has already tasted success in Saint Petersburg, Moscow and Venice.

Alexander Lebedev, the founder of La Collection’Air and Hotel Château Gütsch, explained that the exhibition has had a different concept in each city, and Lucerne will have its own setup.

The gallery sits on top of a hill overlooking the city. The Four Horsemen of the Modern Apocalypse will descend from the top of the hill, down towards the city. The Horsemen will be surrounded by the sculptures of human sins.

The immersive exhibition encourages visitors to examine the sculptures with an audio guide narrated in the style of Dante’s poems. The sculptures of human sins also portray the punishment that comes with the sin. For instance, Gluttony is incredibly obese and Temptation has no limbs.

The exhibition also includes a ‘prison’ room, further embodying the topic of sin. Famous criminals such as Stalin, Pablo Escobar and Bokassa are imprisoned here. The prison has a dungeon room - Betrayal - which represents Hell. Visitors are encouraged to leave notes on the wall, allowing them to name people who have betrayed them, or to write a message of forgiveness.

The exhibition ends on a positive note. The Heart of Hope is a large sculpture of a heart at the centre of the exhibition, which was also displayed at the Burning Man festival in 2017. It symbolises the ability to stop all the negative traits and sins. Visitors are given a bracelet which transmits a signal to the statue, which then beats in the rhythm of the bracelet wearer’s heartbeat.