A new Fort offering, The Paradox Museum, promises to trick your eye with optical illusions, making it the latest spot to be featured on everyone’s feed
The Reversed Room
Imagine walking along with the motions of a moving black box—thanks to gravitational pull, you are grounded, but on camera, it appears you are walking in space with zero gravity. At another installation, a trick of mirrors makes your face blend with your friend’s. Several such optical illusions will trick your eye (and your phone camera) at the Paradox Museum, which has opened its doors in Fort. With several museums peppered across the world, Mumbai is Paradox’s first city in India. And, as the name suggests, every installation is a paradox or an illusion.
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The first Paradox Museum opened in Oslo, Norway in 2022. From thereon, it has opened across Las Vegas, London, Paris, Shanghai, and Berlin among others. Talking about how the museum came about, Nadia Roditi, COO, says that founders Miltos Kambourides and Sakis Tanimanidis wanted to create a unique entertainment destination. She adds, “They wanted to create something umissable, merging the values of science and art. About 50 artists in Croatia develop the exhibits, and are always looking into new concepts to enhance the whole experience.”
THE INFINITY WELL
The Mumbai museum houses over 50 installations and has 15 immersive rooms, many of which are identical to the ones in the West. The Reversed Room, a signature of the museum is a fresh take on the old House of Mirrors concept. You will encounter installations at every turn, and even a slight shift in position can present a new perspective. Paradox Sofa immerses you in the art, where a person’s torso is lodged inside the seat cushion but a pair of legs appears right beside them.
There are smaller installations like the Paradox Ball, where a ball appears to go the distance when you swing it by a thread but in reality, it’s just the ball’s reflection on a metal dome. And, more elaborate constructions such as the Paradox Tunnel, which disorients your senses with a kaleidoscopic moving wall and makes walking straight feel impossible. Butterflies Shadow features one-winged butterflies stuck to a dark wall but with a moving light source, they appear to be flapping both wings.
What’s exciting about the Paradox Museum is that it merges science, art, and psychology. It’s delivering education, but in an immersive fashion one that we have perhaps only experienced in travelling exhibits and pop-ups at new-age art galleries. Every installation also comes with a QR code that you can scan to know more about the piece and understand the science behind each illusion.
The Zero Gravity Room takes it further with a stand where you can fix your phone and record a video of yourself walking in the black box. The result: A cool reel you can post to fool your social media followers into thinking that you are in space. The museum is Instagram-forward, and walking through will make you wonder whether this was designed to please algorithms. To be fair, who wouldn’t want to Instagram this?
WHERE: Shreeniwas House, 27, H Somani Marg, Azad Maidan, Fort
ENTRY: Rs 590 + for adults, Rs 550 + for kids under 12
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