Last year, the Art*VR festival repositioned Prague and Eastern Europe on the map of XR events, in what is now a busy annual calendar. While the Czech Republic is no shy when it comes to immersive festivals, Art*VR has established itself as one of the events 100% dedicated to the art and industry, and with plenty of arguments in its favour: competitive selections, long-term exhibitions, conferences and an almost nascent market. In 2024, for the second edition, the formula changes little but consolidates. Here’s a review with director Ondřej Moravec.
Cover: MAMMARY MOUNTAIN, by Tara Baoth Mooney, Camille Baker & Maf’j Alvarez
Art*VR, Edition 2
Ondřej Moravec – We’re delighted with the second edition of Art*VR. We’re growing, with a greater number of experiences presented (33 compared with 23 last year, again at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art), and above all a greater variety of genres and formats – even in their geographical origins, which is of particular interest to us. Mixed reality has a more prominent place, notably one with a live performance (HINTERLANDS). And more ambitious installations, such as DUCHAMPIANA, which will be in competition. It’s a highly symbolic work that also links in with our out-of-competition selection “Beyond the Glass Ceiling”, which honours women’s interactive creativity and related themes. On the jury side, we’ll have two industry-critical women authors, Gina Kim (South Korea) and Eliza McNitt (USA).
O. M. – OTHERWORLDS is an installation by a Ukrainian artist, a kind of collective fantasy ritual of Ukrainian heritage. We select installations carefully, as they require more energy and space to host them properly. When the subject and format are coherent, it’s an asset for the festival to have them in the program. Mixed reality, for example, still requires physical support, a set and furniture. The whole complication of adding these very real creative layers to digital content is to be able to bring them in within the limits of our budgets, and consistent with our overall line-up.
Competition
- A Dream Of Fish: Prologue, Lucas Rizzotto, 2024
- A Simple Silence, Craig Quintero, 2024
- Battlefield, François Vautier, 2024
- Bloom, Fabienne Giezendanner & Franck Van Leeuwen, 2023 (read our interview)
- Bodies of Water, Chélanie Beaudin-Quintin, Caroline Laurin-Beaucage, 2024
- Duchampiana, Lilian Hess, 2024 (see our preview)
- Hinterlands, Rebecca Evans, 2023
- Ito Meikyu, Boris Labbé, 2024 (read Unframed Collection interview)
- LIMBOPHOBIA, Wen Yee HSIEH, 2023 (read our interview)
- Lost and Found, Dime Gjorgjievski, 2024
- Otherworlds, Sophia Bulgakova, 2024
- Shadowtime, Sister Sylvester, Deniz Tortum, 2023
- Soul Paint, Sarah Ticho, Niki Smit, 2024
- The Cave VR, Jowita Guja, Adam Żądło, 2024
- Turbulence: Jamais Vu, Ben Joseph Andrews & Emma Roberts, 2023 (read our interview)
Beyond the Glass Ceiling, a dedicated selection to women
O. M. – Dedicating part of our programming to women is a way of celebrating all those who participate in building the immersive industry. In a recent, innovative sector, we are undoubtedly sometimes more modern in our conception of equality. Nevertheless, there are still obvious “glass ceilings” for women, in our society, in entrepreneurship and in the audiovisual industry in general, of course. XR allows us to put the spotlight on many women creators, and we hope to showcase this. There are still some very male-dominated positions on the technical side, and there’s still plenty of room for improvement if we are to reach an equitable level of sharing between men and women. Artistically, there is a really significant presence of women in XR – which allows us to have a real women’s perspective, with sometimes dedicated themes.
O. M. – Programming by theme helps us to design a program that is better identified, and better supported – particularly by foreign territories such as Taiwan and Korea. Nevertheless, our main source of programming remains Western Europe, while we heavily scout for projects in East Europe. LOST AND FOUND is a student project from Macedonia, but it seemed obvious to us to include it in the competition, given the quality. THE CAVE VR, from Poland, will also have its world premiere – as Lucas Rizzotto‘s new project, A DREAM OF FISH – PROLOGUE, again with its lying experience proposal. And then, of course, there are the Czech projects.
VR Exhibition: Beyond the Glass Ceiling
- Close, Hana Umeda, Dorota Sosnowska, 2023
- Comfortless, Gina Kim, 2023 (read our case study)
- Draw for Change! We Exist, We Resist, Mariana Cadenas Sangronis, 2023
- Everywhen 360°, Mária Júdová, 2021
- HeartBeat, Dee Harvey, Johanna Courtney, Simon Ratliff, 2023
- I Took a Lethal Dose of Herbs, Yvette Granata, 2023
- Mammary Mountain, Tara Baoth Mooney, Camille Baker & Maf’j Alvarez, 2023
- MAYA: The Birth of a Superhero, Poulomi Basu & CJ Clarke, 2024
- Nana Lou, Isabelle Andreani, 2024 (read our interview)
- Natalie’s Trifecta, Natalie Paneng, 2023 (read our interview)
- Oneroom-Babel, Sanghee Lee, 2023
- Sister Lin-Tou, Hsiao-Mei Ho, 2023
Special Program
- Astra, Eliza McNitt, 2024 (read our interview)
- Detachment.EXE, Roman Rappak, Anne McKinnon, Lucio Anselmi, 2024 (read our interview)
- FORMATIONS, Roman Rappak, Anne McKinnon, 2024
- Fragile Home, Ondřej Moravec, 2024 (read our interview)
- The Tent, Rory Mitchell, 2024
- Guided Tours of VR Worlds, NProwler, Lotus, 1029chris, Ectique, Mixie!, suzuki_i
A B2B event to motivate national artists
O. M. – We’ll have an Industry program of 10 projects in development, with a dedicated presentation session and networking opportunities. 5 of these come from East Doc Interactive, which we are organising this year with Institute of Documentary Film. It’s a challenge for us, as we’re dependent on funding, to be able to provide better support for project initiators in what is now a very dynamic market. And especially in Eastern European countries, we need to encourage the next generation of creators to enter this immersive industry, and find motivation in it.
O. M. – The Czech Republic doesn’t have a significant digital and immersive industry. We need more visibility and support for creators – especially to produce projects in the country. The national fund will soon be transformed to better accommodate digital projects and video games. This is an important development, which will take place over the next few months, in the hope of motivating creators in the country as well as international co-productions.
https://dokweb.net/activities/east-doc-platform/2022/east-doc-interactive
