... Scale is at the heart of Brambilla's Heaven's Gate. It is "a video monument to Hollywood’s veneration of glamour", as Brambilla puts it, "while retelling the history of the world in seven distinct phases". In his complex, looping, immersive, collage, Brambilla uses existing footage to create a digital tableau as a human figure ascends through seven stages of life, a parallel to the mountainous seven levels of Dante's Purgatory.
For audiences viewing it projected in 2D, in a museum setting, the narrative moves from bottom upwards, borrowing the narrative style of a Native American totem pole. ...
Our panel viewed Heaven's Gate on the Oculus Quest 2 (soon to be rebranded as the Meta Quest 2).