Unreal Estate (the Royal Academy is yours)

Lawrence Lek uses video game software to imagine a future in which the Royal Academy of Arts in London has been sold off as a privately owned luxury estate. This site-specific simulation, created for the Dazed Emerging Artist Award exhibition at the RA, is accompanied by a soundtrack by virtuoso cellist Oliver Coates and a voiceover of a found text from Russian Tatler magazine, translated into Mandarin by Joni Zhu. The project forms Chapter 9 of Bonus Levels, a series of critical virtual worlds based on real places. This time, Lek explores the language of high-end property branding and the complex relationship between luxury, desire, and excess.