FRIDA: Creative Intention

The experience of Frida Inmersiva perfectly aligns with Cocolab's core purpose. Our intention, on the one hand, has always been to inspire other people, to generate positive emotions that translate into a better version of ourselves, that open our vision of things and the possibilities within our reach; on the other hand, we seek to reveal the value that lies in all everyday things, things that are hidden by routine, that lose their magic through repetition; we want to unveil that magic and Frida seemed like a very good starting point, considering that she is an internationally recognized and universal Mexican artist. 

The purpose of designing this experience, says Alejandro Machorro, general director of Cocolab, is not for visitors to learn a lot more about Frida Kahlo's paintings and artwork, but to learn more about her as a Mexican artist and as a person. Taking this as a starting point, we designed a comprehensive experience that begins with the main hall, continues to the heart of the experience and expands into two interactive installations.

In the main hall, which is where the most important part of the content is concentrated, you can see some of her artwork come to life on super-sized canvases, but as you move through the space you get to the heart of Frida, represented by a large sculpture hanging inside a bright and luminous cylinder, formed with large ropes that rotate as the show progresses. This space is much more abstract and is the starting point for the whole intention of the work. If we further explore the experience we will find at each end two interactive spaces that allow you to interact and express yourself through different elements of Frida's work. 

Frida is an immersive and exploratory experience, rather than just a contemplative one. It was also designed to be a hybrid experience, as it is composed of a digital and a physical component. The digital part is all the image construction and animations, the huge amount of projectors and the show control work; and the physical part is the space that was imagined and built, with an important plastic approach where the screens and surfaces are not totally flat, there are different shapes on the canvases and even the floor has a certain texture. We decided not to make it flat because we realized that Frida is flexible and organic, surrounded by nature and textures, and this is perfectly reflected in her paintings. The idea is that you enter a place that feels very digital, of course, but at the same time has all this plasticity that transmits the sensation and emotions that Frida experienced.

During the research stage we realized that what we were most interested in covering about Frida was her ability to face complicated situations and her resilience, which is one of those values that seem to be inherent to some people and easily go unnoticed, it seems that they just exist. We took this resilience aspect and made it the center of the experience: how do we reconcile ourselves with the obstacles we encounter and how do we learn to talk about our pain. So I think Cocolab's purpose with this installation is to bring these positive things to people so that they can find inspiration and discover the hidden value in the things around them. 

Visit the experience Frida Inmersiva in Frontón México, Mexico City.