“With BFI, we are really branching out into more immersive art forms” - Ulrich Schrauth (LFF Expanded 2022)

2022-10-04

German XR curator Ulrich Schrauth is a busy man. Through his exploration of immersive creation, he surveys contemporary art exhibitions and meets the most experimental creators of the sector – without denying the entertainment part of the sector. This can be felt through the various events he organizes, whether in Germany with VRHAM! or in London for the BFI London Film Festival (from Oct 05th to Oct 16th 2022). For our annual discussion, in this fall 2022, he adds a traveling exhibition that was recently showcased in Venice.

Cover: In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats (2022) United Kingdom

Thanks to Agnese Pietrobon for her collaboration!

VRHAM!, la Biennale di Venezia and the art world

Ulrich Schrauth – This year, me and my VRHAM! team planned to travel with our ULTRAMARIN exhibition, which started in Hamburg in June 2022. The international premiere happened at the Tana Art Space in Venice during the Biennale di Venezia, presented in partnership with MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein. We welcomed several creators including Melodie Mousset, Jakob K. Steensen, Can Büyükberber and Adrien M & Claire B. It was an exciting time! Both Biennale attendees, art lovers and general public came to see the show. For us, it was a dream come true to present the first stop of our traveling exhibition in Venice, surrounded by the Biennale energy. And I have the feeling we had something to offer to the Contemporary Art Biennale guests in terms of interactive art.

U. S. – That’s our first step for “VRHAM! on Tour”, with hopes to bring the exhibition to the USA next, this winter. It’s a lot of work for a non-profit organization, things that we have to do on top of others things, but we’re dedicated to make it happen. It’s a very modular exhibition which venues, museums or galleries can present as part of their curation. And I think we managed to bring in very different kinds of immersive content, presented in a form that grants easy access to it, so we hope that it’s perfect for a first contact with XR and Immersive Art.

U. S. – And we feel the attraction coming from the art world! Everyone wants to dig into immersive creation, everyone is experimenting. With VRHAM! I have the feeling we can offer a bridge, a chance to share our knowledge of this new innovative industry. For us, it is all about the creators and surfacing interesting new artistic voices. We see the XR community growing and branching out. Marina Abramovich, Hsin-Chien Huang, Nancy Baker Cahill… They’re paving the way for other artists as well and help finding new artistic expressions. We can’t forget the many obstacles we face: technology, timing, funding… Our exhibitions and events are a way to push things forward, to meet with an audience. That’s fundamental. And that’s why Venice Immersive is so incredibly important for our industry. Michel (Reilhac) and Liz (Rosenthal) work this year was amazing, from the space they built to the curation itself. Absolutely impressive! Seeing so many exciting things, my job is to convince cultural venues and institutional museums to jump in.

BFI London Film Festival: LFF Expanded, Year 3

U. S. – I’m very glad to be back at the BFI this October to present our 3rd edition of LFF Expanded. With BFI, we are really branching out into more art forms, design, fashion, performing arts. My curation as part of the BFI London Film Festival here is to offer a wide overview of the immersive world. I think I have two main missions when I curate, which is to target an audience – this is where my work is a bit different between VRHAM! and LFF – and also to educate, to invite young and diverse audiences to try something new. XR is a new media, even if people might have tried a headset on by now. Last year, 52% of our audience was new to the medium – this is really exciting!

A Mighty Mass Emerges (2022) France, Italy, Switzerland

U. S. – This year, we welcome a very special piece by Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin, HAUNTED HOTEL A Melodrama in Augmented Reality. This is a work we specifically commissioned as a festival for this 2022 edition. Guy Maddin is a world-renown filmmaker and director, but he is also an artist who works in paper collages! We discovered one of his exhibition last year in Paris, and we asked him to create something for us. It’s his first immersive experience, which we produced with the German XR studio headraft. We also brought on the magnificent composer Magnus Fiennes to the project, where he handled both music and sound design. The Augmented Reality installation with Guy’s collages brings the different art works to life by use of AR, and tells a story about loss, love and desire in a very abstract way.

U. S. – As always, we try to put a spotlight on UK immersive creators, but also present a variety of international works. One wonderful example of our UK selection is FRAMERATE by the ScanLab Project team. I have worked with them on different exhibitions for a while now, and they’re doing an amazing job at capturing the reality of life in 3D. Another interesting screen-based work is APPARATUS LUDENS, with a use of AI on the user’s smartphone. This is a great work to discuss the impact of social media and our daily use of it. At our partner venue National Theatre, we present an immersive audio performance (“INTRAVENE by Darkfield”), and a VR live performance: IN PURSUIT OF REPETITIVE BEATS by Darren Emerson (East City Films & BPM XR). But we also have a large number of VR experiences and films which we will present at our main exhibition at 26 Leake Street.

Curating the immersive field for BFI

U. S. – It’s a great chance to work with the BFI team, which is extremely supportive of LFF Expanded. Being such a big and renowned organization, BFI really wants to push forward the opportunities of innovative media and the way we tell stories. We also support the industry in many ways, and we just announced our strategy for the next 10 years, of which digital and immersive is a big part. In addition to my work with LFF Expanded, I also curate a number of immersive exhibitions at the main venue BFI Southbank throughout the year.

U. S. – The beauty of our XR industry is the community. You may find creative studios, international production companies or independent creators. We’re all in the same space. There’s so many extremely creative people coming from very different genres. Film, theater, performance, music… And everyone brings to the table their own imagination. And the COVID situation worked as an accelerator in many ways – at least one positive outcome to look at the bright side of it! We see creators working from home, alone, with real time engine. We see big studios setting up huge international coproduction. The landscape is quite wide!

U. S. – These are our three main exhibition venues: 26 Leake Street for our main exhibition of 17 exciting VR and Mixed Reality works (of which six are world premieres!) and a special exhibit of AS MINE EXACTLY by Charlie Shackleton; BFI Southbank for Guy Maddin’s Augmented Reality installation, then the National Theatre for Darren Emerson’s and Darkfield’s experiences. On top of it, everyone will be able to access a few works on Oculus TV from October 5 to 23: BLACK MOVEMENT LIBRARY, DIGITAL MOTIONS, MONOLITHS and WALZER.

Where does the immersive industry go?

U. S. – Obviously there are more questions than answers at the moment, with one of the most pressing being the question of a viable distribution model and how to showcase the works to larger audiences. From creators to institutions, everyone is looking at this and trying to come up with new solutions. We will have a healthy, sustainable ecosystem at some point. We see it emerging for some parts, and we still need to figure it out entirely. For such a young industry, there are many possibilities to think things differently. How to tour? How to distribute?

U. S. – This is a discussion I often have with creators when they’re still in early stage of their project. I encourage them to have different formats to present their works, from interactive installations to remotely accessible 360 content – flexibility is key here! Always with the integrity of the artistic work at heart of course! But we have to imagine different exhibition and distribution models for the future. There are many different opportunities today to show experiences in museums, online, or at cultural venues, so we have to path the way for future creators and artists…

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