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# art for all
Incredible exhibition helps blind people 'see' artistic masterpieces with their fingers
Visually impaired visitors can now experience the Mona Lisa in an entirely new way.
GREAT MASTERPIECES BY the likes of Francisco de Goya, a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci, and Corregio are now accessible to all thanks to an innovative new exhibition in Madrid.
The Museo Nacional Del Prado in Madrid has launched Touching The Prado, which runs until 28 June, and sees copies of the famous images being printed using a technique called Didú.
Didú prints the images in relief, emphasising specific points of the paintings.
As the Museo del Prado explained:
Developed in collaboration with professionals in the sector of visual impairment, this project allows for the reality of the painting to be perceived in order to mentally recreate it as a whole and thus provide an emotional perception of the work. Non-sighted visitors will be able to obtain a heightened degree of artistic-aesthetic-creative enjoyment in order to explain, discuss and analyse these works in the Prado.
There are also texts in braille and audioguides available to bring even more information to visitors, while fully-sighted people can use opaque glasses to try the experience themselves.
Ruben, who is blind, was contacted by Estudios Durero about the exhibition, and asked to help.
A video shows Ruben’s first visit to Prado since he lost his sight.
“My fingers are my eyes,” he explains in the video.
Everything I perceive with my fingers, all the information they gather, helps me to learn, to compose the image that up to now I couldn’t grasp.
“For me Didú is another way to see, A way of connecting the world with images,” said Ruben.
“Didú is touching to see.”
Read: New art exhibition will be accessible to blind audiences>
