VR_I

VR_I combines for the first time ever, immersive virtual reality and dance in a work in which each person who enters the room, projected in the form of an avatar in the centre of the device, experiences an unprecedented sensory adventure with virtual dancers. The boundaries between the dancer and the spectator are eliminated and they both move on the same plane, at the same time and in the same space as if they were at a crossroads between reality and “virtuality”. By playing with scales in a surprising way, Gilles Jobin has created a work that challenges our perception of reality and conquers new unexplored and hitherto unknown territories in contemporary dance.

VR_I was selected to participate in the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and received the Grand Prize for Innovation and the Audience Award for Best Performance at the 49th Montreal New Cinema Festival.

Gilles Jobin worked for ten years as a freelance dancer in Switzerland and Spain before becoming co-director of the Théâtre de la Usine in Geneva in 1993. He has created more than twenty works and given six hundred performances in forty countries all over the world. In addition to his own productions, Gilles Jobin has turned his Studios 44 space in Geneva into a pioneering centre for contemporary Swiss dance. In 2015, he was awarded the Swiss Grand Award for Dance for his contribution to the development of this discipline.

The Artanim Foundation is a research centre that was set up in Geneva in 2011 by three experts in the capture of movement, Caecilia Charbonnier, Clémentine Lo and Sylvain Chagué. It carries out research projects in orthopaedics, sports medicine, 3D animation and virtual and augmented reality. In 2016, it took part in the “New Frontiers” section of the Sundance Film Festival, Lift 2016 and the Cannes Film Festival. 

Naves Matadero - International Living Arts Centre is home to a considerable part of the BAC Madrid #0 programme, a new exhibition, production and training project featuring the arts of movement, the body and image. This exhibition includes the immersive virtual reality installation VR_I by the Gilles Jobin & Artanim company; an exhibition with works by the six artists who are being honoured in this first edition - Analívia Cordeiro (Brazil), La Ribot (Spain), Narcissister (USA), Nora Chipaumire (Zimbabwe), Tadasu Takamine (Japan) and Victoria Hunt (Australia) - chosen by a curatorial committee of renowned prestige from each of the six continents; two performative encounters, one between Narcissister and Ashley Ferro-Murray and the other between Nora Chipaumire and Jay Pather; an exhibition to pay tribute to Núria Font, and a community project and installation by the visual artist and designer from Navarra, Marisa Mantxola.

BAC Madrid #0 is collaborating with FIVER (Spain’s International Platform and Festival of Support, Exhibition and Production of Audiovisual Dance and Technology) in programming a series of actions prior to and complementary to the biennial, comprising projections, exhibitions, workshops and professional meetings that will take place during the months of September and October.

The complete programme can be found at www.bacmadrid.com

ACTIVITY PART OF BAC MADRID #0. BIENNIAL OF THE ARTS OF THE BODY, IMAGE AND MOVEMENT.


A project of: Cie. Gilles Jobin & Artanim Choreography: Gilles Jobin
Dance: Susana Panadés Díaz, Victoria Chiu, Diya Naidu, Gilles Jobin and Tidiani N’Diaye
RV platform and inmersive technology: Artanim Costumes and virtual sets: Jean-Paul Lespagnard
Sound environment: Carla Scaletti/Symbolic Sound Production director: Camilo De Martino
3D scans and movement capture: Artanim
3D artist: Tristan Siodlak
3D editor: Camilo De Martino
Technical artist: Rémy Maetz
Assistant coreographer: Susana Panadés Díaz Technical director: Hugo Cahn
Technical team on tour: Hugo Cahn, Camilo de Martino, Susana Panadés Diaz Administration: Gonzague Bochud
Production: Cie Gilles Jobin Genève – Suisse Coproduction: Arsenic, Lausanne
With the support of: City of Geneva, Canton of Geneva, Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council, Loterie Romande, Fondation Meyrinoise du Casino, Fonds mécénat SIG Tour thanks to the support of: Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council, Canton of Geneva, Corodis