Montreal's new VR exhibit takes visitors back to Ancient Egypt

The horizon of Khufu is a VR experience that came to Montreal on February 16th, as a collaboration by the Centre Phi and Excurio, a VR company based in Paris. The experience takes visitors on a virtual reality journey through ancient Egypt, inside a pyramid and at imagined rituals that were done during the time.

This VR exhibit has travelled to many cities around the world already, including Paris and Beijing, before making its way to Montreal. We spoke to Fabian Barati, the CEO and cofounder of Emissive and Excurio to discuss the collaboration and process to bring the exhibit to Montreal. Barati says this is the third VR experience that the company designed, and that each project takes about three years of research and working with an expert in the field to cross verify the accuracy of the experience.   

“We bring the whole content and also the technology to our different partners, to Montreal as well and Phi, who is using that to create their own venue and to build the space to market the project in the area,” says Barati.

However, located in the old port of Montreal, in the immersive experiences building of the science centre, it is not the most accessible exhibit. More so, with tickets costing $45 for adults and $35 for children, the show is clearly catered to a small population. But Barati still believes in the power of immersive experiences.

“I think there is a bright future for immersive experiences in term of sharing knowledge, improving the understanding of our heritage, about culture, because the immersive expeditions can do one thing very efficiently - creating a context that we are involved in,” says Barati.