New work by inti figgis-vizueta‘s (CRF 2022) is now playing at this year’s Venice Biennale in Venice Immersive, a section dedicated entirely to immersive arts and media. “1968,” a communal VR theatre experience, is an international collaboration with visual artist Rose Bond and sound designer Massimiliano Borghesi and features inti’s composition “Seven Sides of Fire” for Attacca Quartet and the American Composers Orchestra. The work explores the transformative power of protest through animated still photographs that allude to 1968—a year charged with societal, cultural and political unrest. Bond’s 360° hand-drawn animation interacts with Borghesi’s spatialisation of inti’s original tracks to ignite a dynamic, evocative and shared immersive experience. 1968 is experienced collectively under a geodesic sound dome and is the first movement of a longer, anticipated work.
Bond tells the Biennale, “VR, when combined with hand-drawn animation and immersive sound, can articulate complex emotional and lyrical dimensions with rare sensitivity. Coming from a school of animation that values gesture over spoken word, I regard 3D space as a gift — an expansion from the flatness of film, a place for extended choreography. Sound has long inhabited the space between sense and sensation. This communal VR installation, ensconced in a geodesic dome mounted with fifteen acoustic speakers, seeks a shared experience — one that verges on the haptic, with exquisite spatial precision.”
Venice Immersive is the Extended Reality (XR) section of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival of La Biennale di Venezia (August 27th – September 6th 2025). The section includes all forms of creative XR expression: immersive videos, virtual and mixed reality, virtual worlds, XR and immersive installations.
Learn more and watch a trailer here.
Photo via labiennale.org.