Daniel Grinbank has lived many lives: DJ, manager, entrepreneur, representative, producer. Many lives with lights and shadows: stage lights and shadows of the night. Many lives, all committed to an idea of art as a torch that guided him through different fields: television, radio, festivals, theater, even soccer and Buenos Aires zoo. 

With the creation of FM Rock & Pop in 1985, Grinbank founded a way of broadcasting and thinking about rock in Argentina. He was also the one who put the country on the map for major international tours by bands such as The Rolling Stones, The Cure, Guns N’ Roses, Paul McCartney, Tina Turner, and The Ramones, to name but a few. 

He is the man behind immense achievements — some unusual — that millions of Argentines would be grateful for if they knew who to thank. His cultural contributions reached diverse audiences, always with the intention of stimulating enjoyment and learning. His interests enriched us all, and at the same time, he indulged himself by working on whatever he wanted, with passion and a constant vision of the future.

With over 40 years in the entertainment industry, Grinbank is now expanding into territories where art, technology, and storytelling converge. From his production company, DG Experience, he presents Art Masters in Buenos Aires, an immersive journey that, through augmented virtual reality, immerses us in five masterpieces from the Prado Museum. The proposal allows us, for example, to tour a 17th-century restoration workshop, participate in a party inside Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, and discover who Infanta Margarita is looking at in Velázquez’s Las Meninas. Art Masters not only projects the future of this type of experience. Under Grinbank’s leadership, it becomes an actual time machine that invites us to take a different kind of walk through art history.

“Today, we consume more and more movies and fiction on platforms from the comfort of our armchairs,” he says. “What sets a proposal like Art Masters apart is that it is an experience to be lived. The drawings on the floor are not decorative, but rather QR codes with a rotating circuit that operates through headphones. That’s very difficult to do at home right now, so you have to go out.” 

How did the idea of developing this type of exhibition in Buenos Aires come about?

The DG Experience team had been following the growth of augmented virtual reality. We made other contacts and acquisitions, but we felt that the Prado Museum’s seal — which is a strong brand and at the same time a solemn museum — served as a pretext for developing a whole new art form, with these supreme works as triggers: the awareness that the painting is a final realization, it is what one sees, but that behind it there is a whole creative process. 

Did the Prado Museum get involved? Did it promote the project? 

There is a company called ACCIONA Living & Culture, the second-largest construction company in Spain, which has a cultural department that makes this experience possible. The Prado Museum is a very bureaucratic giant, and ACCIONA managed to reach an agreement with them. The challenge was to reflect the Prado’s imprint, which is why, at the beginning of the tour, the history of the building and the collection is told. Through the peepholes, the idea is to generate a particular mystery about the works you are going to see. Until you put on the virtual reality headsets, it’s a way of transporting these works to those who don’t have the opportunity to travel to Madrid, see them, enjoy them, and understand them, added to the magic of being able to enter the paintings.

Did you receive criticism or resistance from the art world?

They are parallel worlds, but they coexist and feed off each other. When the phenomenon of immersive experiences burst onto the scene, some purists considered taking art out of museums to be a kind of desecration. I don’t think so. The immersive experience complements the museum, rather than replacing it. AI plays a fundamental role, yet with a sensitive and human character, transporting us to a different fantasy that transcends what is generated when we look at a painting.

What was the public’s reception like in Buenos Aires?

We are delighted, aware that it is a challenge, because until you live the experience, it is tough to convey. Art Masters is a 3D, 360-degree, immersive, and interactive experience. It involves a lot of technologies working together, with music created specifically for it that works very well, and a script that gives it meaning. The reception has been excellent. We had already experienced the immersive Van Gogh exhibition, which drew over 400,000 visitors. Still, it was easier to communicate because it featured less technology and could be transmitted in 2D, either digitally or otherwise. With Art Masters, word of mouth is a key factor in its success. 

How do you see the relationship between entertainment, technology, AI, and augmented virtual reality in Argentina?

We are making a significant contribution to this, and we will have other experiences and exhibitions. Technology, sooner or later, will flood everything. We experience the transition from the analog to the digital world daily, with its pros and cons in all areas, and the update is constant. Today, AI is present in people’s daily lives, and algorithms — which we thought would democratize information and access — are increasingly locking us in. The biggest challenge we all face, whether in terms of cultural consumption or politics, is precisely to break free from algorithms. In this sense, Art Masters is also an invitation for people to leave their homes and experience something new.

After so many years of producing shows, weren’t you afraid of this change?

On the contrary, I am aware that we live in a different world. Wanting to remain relevant is a decision. You can stay in a niche without continuing to evolve; no one is forcing you to do so. But if you want to play in the new leagues — and I still find it entertaining — you have to explore, study hard, and meet with teams where you are not the limit of change. There is no way I can be the ceiling of a project. Because of my abilities, because I’m from another generation, and because I have an analog mind in many ways, I need to surround myself with people who give me something extra, who translate many things I like and many things I don’t like as well. 

ART MASTERS Argentina, a journey inspired by the works of the Prado Museum  
Where: La Rural, Frers Pavilion (Av. Santa Fe 4363, CABA). 
Schedule: Tuesday to Thursday from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. 
Until November 2. 
Tickets: https://www.laruralticket.com.ar/event/art-masters