Created in Prague in 2023, Art*VR has grown every year since. With new sections, new formats, and a consistently strong editorial focus, this event dedicated to immersive creation is increasingly making its mark—and gaining importance within the industry. We take a look at an ambitious third year, in the middle of a big month for digital art in general in the Czech Republic, with programmer Ondřej Moravec.
Cover: Art*VR 2024 📸 Tomáš Cindr
Art*VR Festival, 3rd edition and new things
Ondřej Moravec – Art*VR is growing, but with the idea that the 2025 edition will be in the format we want to continue. This year we will be present in an additional venue, for Fulldome projects at the Prague Planetarium, which has just reopened after a long period of renovation. It is a magnificent venue and the first European planetarium equipped with LED screens. This allows for very dense and very bright projections! We have selected 10 films for this selection, mainly new releases.
O. M. – Incorporating the fulldome format into our selection is particularly interesting when we consider that several VR projects are suitable for dome projections. For example, we will be presenting -22.7°C by Molecule and Jan Kounen, the first version of which was released before the pandemic. It is a wonderful, very sonic odyssey that I had noticed previously. The current version reinforces the power of sound and music in this space. It is a trend that we are following closely.
O. M. – Immersive creation is broadening its definition somewhat, centering on XR. Perhaps we will take an interest in more audiovisual installations, as the Tribeca Festival does, for example. But that requires additional funding, and there are already initiatives in this area in Prague. We are fortunate to have a real moment around digital creation in the city, with the Signal Festival (and a new permanent venue) close to Art*VR in terms of timing—and satellite activities. It’s a real paradox because we don’t have a huge number of creators in the field either. This is gradually increasing, of course, and the presence of our events can help make that happen.
O. M. – We remain focused on immersive experiences and XR, and this year’s selection was particularly complex given the very high quality of the projects we viewed. We have to consider the space we have available, of course, and the potential premieres… When you see the quality of the line-up at Venice Immersive, and especially the multiple formats of the works, from immersive theater to 7-minute animated films, curating this selection is a real challenge in itself! I don’t think the situation was very different in previous years, but for 2025 there is extra energy in the ecosystem.
A wide range of sections, from Competition to Dome
O. M. – This year, we have three categories for VR and MR: the Immersive Competition, the More-than-Human Perspectives exhibition, and a new section called AsteRisk*. The Competition features a lineup of new experiences of undeniable quality, offering a wide variety of proposals. It is located in a contemporary art gallery, DOX Center for Contemporary Art, which gives us the opportunity to showcase visually striking works—sometimes close to visual art, such as CREATIONS OF THE WORLDS by Kristina Buožytė and Vitalijus Žukas, inspired by the Lithuanian painter Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis.
O. M. – We also offer projects that include live performances, and in this vein we will have the world premiere of REPLICA by Ben Neal and Kerryn Wise. It is a mixed reality work with a dancer, visually following his movements at the heart of a love story. There will also be social proposals, such as ROAMANCE, which focuses on the notion of encounters and blind dates. And every year, we aim to have several films made using Quill, which is a real trend in the industry: LESS THAN 5GR OF SAFFRON and THE BIG CUBE are magnificent examples of this. And among all the selected projects, we offer a cross-disciplinary list of works intended for schools.
O. M. – We will also have the world premiere of FALLAX by Owen Hindley, an Icelandic and English project. It was a country we didn’t know much about, and it’s an amazing project involving animation and a theme related to contemporary circus. THE BUILDING by Kaho Albert Yu will also be having its world premiere. It’s a VR game that encourages discovery in a strange environment, with no real goal, but it raises a lot of questions for the viewer.
O. M. – Mixed reality is not yet fully present in festival lineups, but in addition to REPLICA, we will also be hosting IMPULSE: PLAYING WITH REALITY. This demonstrates our desire to continue exploring this format.
The More-than-Human Perspectives exhibition looks beyond the Anthropocene to offer a view of the world from the perspective of flora and fauna. This is the case with ECHOVISION, which provides viewers with a mask and encourages them to create sounds like a bat, for example. PLASTISAPIENS offers a vision of the future where plastic has taken over everything. Finally, the new AsteRisk* section deals with impactful topics through projects addressing contemporary issues. The new dome section features projects ranging from highly experimental and abstract works and hallucinatory journeys to more narrative pieces.
B2B activities for immersive creators
Art*VR will also host eight projects in development for dedicated pitch sessions, some of which will be presented as prototypes, with very diverse geographical origins. Each project will then have a round table discussion with decision makers, instead of individual meetings. We are also continuing our collaboration with Zip-Scene Conference, whose theme this year will be “Hunting for Attention: Interactive Digital Storytelling in Fragmented Attention Landscapes.”
