Cinema hosts Romania’s first Museum of Illusions

The first Museum of Illusions in the country will open at the Dacia Cinema in Cluj-Napoca, in Western Romania. It will feature 24 large-dimension mirrors that deform the reality, a vortex tunnel, a pyramid hologram, a Van De Graaff generator, and a theremin - the musical instrument you can play without touching it. The museum will stay open July 28 to August 6, and will help visitors understand how illusions work through direct contact with the over 100 objects presented there, but also through the explanations of an unplugged storyteller that will give details of their operating mechanisms and make live demonstrations. The Museum of Illusions will take its visitors through three major chapters, each of them focused on a different illusion. For example, the deformed mirrors’ room will be the place where both children and adults can have some fun, seeing themselves thin as a string or round like a balloon, with big bellies or looking like dwarfs. The optical illusions will also have a dedicated space where over 50 original paintings, some of them large, will make the visitors use their will and imagination to solve the mysteries behind them. All images will be equipped with measurement tools that will help visitors understand how illusions work. The third room will be dedicated to objects that will give visitors unique experiences. For example, in this place the visitors will understand how holograms work, will experience vertigo in a six-meter long tunnel, will try to decipher the mechanism of cinematic illusion, or will have the chance to try their musical talents on a theremin, the first electronic musical instrument. Those who want to visit the museum will have to make a reservation first at contact@muzeuliluziilor.ro. A tour of the museum will take around 50 minutes, and a ticket will cost RON 13 (around EUR 3). The Museum of Illusions is a mobile project that will travel to several major cities in Romania. Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com (photo source: Muzeul Iluziilor on Facebook)