Game art mods are back

In 1995 we got Ars Doom, one of the very first examples of artistic modifications of videogames. Using the Doom II engine and Autodesk’ AutoCAD software, Orhan Kipcak and Reini Urban created a virtual copy of the Brucknerhaus’ exhibition hall in Linz and invited artists to submit virtual artworks that could be displayed in the new map. Armed with a shooting cross, a chainsaw or a brush the player could kill the artists and destroy all the artworks on display.

Between 1996 and 199 Palle Torsson & Tobias Bernstrup created the series Museum Meltdown,  three artistically modified videogames based on reconstructions of famous art museums (Arken Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen, Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius and Moderna Museet in Stockholm). They used Duke Nukem 3D and Half Life.

In 1999 Florian Muser and Imre Osswald created NoRoomGallery, a mod level of Quake that reproduced the exhibition spaces of Hamburger Kunsthalle in Berlin.

Now, in 2025, Filippo Meozzi and Liam Stone gifted us with the delightful Doom Gallery Experience, “an art piece designed to parody the wonderfully pretentious world of gallery openings”. No weapons this time, just glasses of wine and complimentary hors d’oeuvres.

BONUS: Here are is a text I wrote in 2005 about artistic modifications of video games (unfortunately, it’s available in Italian only).