Pelai Virtual Gallery is an interactive art gallery where users will be able to walk, contemplate and play through eXplorins APP with artworks created by 15 local artists. But, who is eXplorins? how did they start with this project? and more important, how do they see the future of experiential storytelling? Keep reading to have all the answers 🙂 

What is eXplorins? 

eXplorins is a company that has been with us since MOB Caterina opened. It’s an app and Hub based in Barcelona that creates projects to revitalize cities and experiential marketing through local culture. All experiences are in online/offline format and invite you to discover, interact and support the promotion of culture, commerce and social entities in the cities where they take place.

How was the idea of eXplorins born?

It’s a project born in Barcelona, as a result of merging two perspectives: 

  • Daniel’s view with his urbanistic look, wanting to discover the city and its elements. 
  • Angela’s passion for people and their stories. 

They both created eXplorins, convinced to make people play outside the algorithm, get off their couch and make them live the offline space like never before. They want you to experiment with the cities through innovative experiences, so they have developed B2B experiential marketing projects tailored for purposeful, risky, and innovative brands. 

How was the Pelai Virtual Gallery project born? 

Pelai Virtual Gallery is a result of a brief that Pelai i Rodalies sent them, where they were asked to develop a project for the commercial axis. The goal was to take a look into the future with the challenge of becoming the best shopping street in the city, but also with a more friendly space for people, at the forefront of technology, culture and urbanism sustainability. 

Unconventional project, Pelai Virtual Gallery is a totally innovative experience where art takes over the street through augmented reality, inviting free participation of the masses to take a look at the future. This is not a metaverse; it’s a meeting space, hyper connection and interaction driven by local culture.

¿What is Pelai street?

Pelai is one of the main arteries in Barcelona and the busiest shopping street in the city (15,000 people a day). It’s a street that is in transition at the urban level and wants to become a more friendly place for the citizens: safer and more sustainable, that promotes social relations, promotes commerce and culture, always placing in the center of people needs.

Participating artists

Gemma Degara / Ivan Hugo / Veronica Cassiani / Ricardo Bracho / Sandra Suy / Magda Mojsiejuk / Imanol Ossa / Ana Sugar Gil / Jan Barcelo / Alvar Fedz. / Marina Salazar / Nina Posadas / Nicole Vindel /Sergio de la Flora and Futurity Studio

How does Pelai Virtual Gallery work?

It’s super easy: 

  • First open the png universe (it will ask you to check if your device is compatible with the AR experience)
  • Once the check is done go (physically) to pelai street
  • Once you are there take your phone (with the GPS on) and enter in Pelai Virtual Gallery universe through the eXplorins app. 
  • Start the route and play with the 15 works of art created by local artists and visit each stop.
  • Explore all the works in augmented reality, access the digital works, buy them in NFT format –the products store during and after the experience. 

Note: NFTs will be on Mintbase.io platform that uses the NEAR Protocol coin – cryptocurrency with carbon neutral certificate (environmental sustainability). It’s a coin that is still growing, and that has great expectation for the format, sustainability and modular profile. 

Are NFTs here to stay?

It’s quite uncertain, we could not have a closed answer to this question. But what we do know is that it has a huge potential to stay, not only in sectors such as art, but in many more. The NFT (Not Fungible Token) format are an ‘inimitable’ asset in the digital world and these tokens can be understood as certificates of ownership of digital assets and, therefore, can be sold (infinite times) and collected, and it is thanks to the digital contract that the seller has direct participation of the profits thanks to royalties for life. 

How can we take care of the local and the social through virtual projects? 

We are at a time when a door is opening to great changes in the way we use the internet, and let’s consider that our role as a technology company with an offline soul, will be to promote projects that seek to create unique experiences, in balance with social and cultural realities in favor of common welfare. For example, in PVG the royalty contract of the NFT will have applied a % of artists and also a % that goes directly to a wallet of social projects (donations) / foundations in the territory. 

Technology is an unparalleled tool to be able to connect, but the values and the foundation of these connections have to be looked at from both sides, this way we will create projects, companies, and/or actions that care and respect society.