by Alessia Bellan

From California to the UAE, cultural institutions are exploring new paths, staking all on an architectural, cultural and stylistic vision that is futuristic, to say the least.

In 2026 the global cultural geography is changing shape. From Los Angeles to Abu Dhabi, three new museums present an idea that goes well beyond being simply a display space but now projects art into the 22^nd century. Architecture becomes experience, technology a creative material and narration a language to explore.

DATALAND AI, the grand Artificial Intelligence show

In the heart of downtown Los Angeles, in Frank Gehry’s Grand LA complex, DATALAND AI is the first museum entirely dedicated to AI-generated arts. Inspired by the visionary idea of co-founders Refik Anadol and Efsun Erkılıç, five immersive galleries covering over 2,000 square metres present constantly-evolving scenarios where data, algorithms and senses interweave. The creative power is provided by the Large Nature Model, an open-source AI model trained on environmental datasets that generate images, sounds and scents. The Infinity Room, a development of the iconic installation by the Anadol studio, already a artistic force in Los Angeles with works like WDCH Dreams, projected in 2018 onto the Walt Disney Concert Hall, integrates AI-generated scents and World Models capable of interpreting real physical dynamics, transforming the space into a simulation to be experienced. This ethical, transparent laboratory on data use is a place that combines art, science and technology in a physical experience constructed for the visitors of today and tomorrow.

Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, a global hub looking towards the 22^nd century

On the island of Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi’s cultural district, the new Guggenheim is taking shape, a museum destined to become the largest of the foundation’s cultural projects. Designed by Frank Gehry, it comprises sculptural volumes and fluid spaces that reinterpret elements of local tradition like the wind towers once used to provide natural ventilation. The result is a bright structure that enters into a dialogue with the desert and the light reflected off the Gulf. “As far as possible we’ve tried to think what the museum of the 22nd century will be like”, says the head of Abu Dhabi’s Tourism Agency, Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, identifying the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi as institution that is designed for the culture of the future, not the present. The collection will extend from the 1960s to today, bringing together great names from the Western tradition such as Basquiat, Pollock, Rothko and Warhol with a wide selection of contemporary artists from Africa, Asia and the Arab world. Presenting a global reading of modernity, it integrates the use of augmented reality, digital narration and artificial intelligence. The museum is still under construction and its opening, scheduled before year’s end, is eagerly anticipated.

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, a spaceship in L.A.

In the green space of the Exposition Park, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art seems to be something straight out of a sci-fi epic. Designed by Ma Yansong (MAD Architects), the building resembles a floating spaceship with flowing shapes that enhance the impression of movement. Founded by George Lucas with his wife Mellody Hobson, the former chair of DreamWorks Animation, the museum is inspired by the producer and director’s passion for collecting narrative art. Visitors can enjoy an immersive journey through stories, landscapes and images with more than 40,000 works from the worlds of illustration, comics, painting, photography, cinema and digital media, featuring illustrious names like Norman Rockwell, Jessie Willcox Smith, Maxfield Parrish and Andrew Wyeth, but also great masters of comic book art like Winsor McCay, Frank Frazetta, George Herriman, Jack Kirby and R. Crumb, as well as murals and works by Judith F. Baca, JR and Diego Rivera, together with iconic pieces by Frida Kahlo, Jacob Lawrence, Charles White and Robert Colescott. There is also, of course, a section dedicated to the history of the cinema, with exhibits ranging from Star Wars costumes to original posters, re-establishing the universal power of visual narration and offering a new way of experiencing the story, where audience and narration participate in the same creative process. The museum is set to open to the public in September.

Infinity Room ©Refik Anadol Studio for Dataland

Project Entrance, Main Elevation, 
Image courtesy Gehry Partners, LLP