Courtesy of the Museum of Illusions.
The "Jazzman" exhibit at New Orleans's new Museum of Illusions. His eyes follow the viewer wherever they go across the room.
New Orleans has always been a city of mischief, of trickery, of magic. It’s a place of contradictions and senselessness, but always delight, and always depth. This, perhaps, more than anything, is what makes the Crescent City a great location for Tomislav Pamuković and Roko Živković’s Museum of Illusions.
Opened on October 17 in the historic Jax Brewery building at 600 Decatur St., the 9,000 square foot museum provides an immersive, mind-bending tour through eighty optical illusion exhibits. “You will see things that you will not believe,” said Pien Koopman, the Public Relations Manager for the Museum of Illusions. “You know not to believe what you’re seeing, but your brain is telling you it must be something else.”
Pamuković and Živković’s concept for a museum of mind tricks began a decade ago in Zagreb, Croatia, and has since expanded to sixty museums globally—making the Museum of Illusions the fastest growing private chain of museums in the world.
It’s not blind growth they’re looking for, though—the cities chosen as homes for these experiences play a role in the illusions themselves. In New Orleans’s location, for example, there are exhibits inspired by jazz culture and the architecture of the French Quarter.
Courtesy of the Museum of Illusions.
The "Jazz Hall Reverse Room" at the Museum of Illusions
“New Orleans has been on the cards for a while,” said Koopman, “just because it is such an iconic city, with such a rich history.” She went on to explain that wherever they go, the museum’s team makes efforts to integrate the site into the fabric of a neighborhood. “We take in the culture, and want to become an integral part of the community, to be a great neighbor and work with local companies. All of that is really important to us.”
The experience itself is built, like so much in New Orleans, on a combination of wonder and satisfaction. Each mesmerizing exhibit—turning you upside down before your eyes, breaking your face into kaleidoscopic pieces, transforming you into a giant—can be explained with science and psychology, via signs on the walls and Illusion Experts stationed throughout the museum.
“It’s like this whole game of figuring out, ‘What is really happening?’ And then, suddenly, when you grasp it, it’s very satisfying,” said Koopman.
Learn more about the museum and find tickets at moineworleans.com.
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