Chronus Art Center, Shanghai 

9-12 / 15-18 MAY 2019

VR_I is a contemporary dance piece in immersive virtual reality created by Gilles Jobin and Artanim. For the upcoming month, the team will be on tour in Asia: after their first destination in Japan, the fantastic VR_I will be in Shanghai and followed by Korea and Singapore.

For the first time ever, a choreographer combines dance with immersive virtual reality in a work that provides viewers with a unique sensory experience. Blending art with technology, VR_I resulted from the encounter between Gilles Jobin and the founders of Artanim, Caecilia Charbonnier and Sylvain Chagué, motion capture technology experts and virtual reality pioneers in Switzerland and abroad. In association with them, Gilles Jobin developed VR_I, a work in which the creator questions our perception of reality and enters new unexplored and unchartered territories for contemporary dance.

Thanks to the virtual reality technology developed by Artanim, VR_I viewers equipped with virtual reality headsets and backpack computers move freely in a total virtual space. Five viewers at a time may explore this world, moving in turn in an endless desert, an urban landscape or inside a loft at the top of a mountain. Participants each embody an avatar that faithfully replicates their movements, enhancing the feeling of immersion in the virtual world while also enabling them to see their peers. During the experience, participants can thus interact physically and even communicate with the others. Five virtual dancers then come to blur their perception, multiplying, growing to the point of becoming giants or becoming tiny. With these effects of scale, Gilles Jobin addresses the concept of spatiality in a truly original way.

The international cast for this work designed and produced in Switzerland features American composer Carla Scaletti, Belgian fashion designer Jean-Paul Lespagnard and dancers Victoria Chiu, Susana Panadés Diaz, Diya Naidu, Tidiani N’Diaye and Gilles Jobin himself. Since its creation in 2017, VR_I was presented at Sundance Film Festival 2018, and at 75 Mostra Internazionale d’Arte cinematografica / La Biennale di Venezia 2018.  VR_I received the Innovation award and the people’s choice award for the best performance at the 49th edition of the Festival du nouveau cinema in Montréal 2017.

Important notifications

・Duration: 15 minutes (The total duration of the experience for the audience is around 30 min.)

・Entrance into the space: 5 spectators every 20 minutes. The spectators will be divided into 3 groups by the order of registration, so please follow the instructions of the staff on site. Thanks for your patience. 

・Participants must be present at least five minutes before the scheduled starting time.

・Participants must be over 8 years of age.

・Wheelchair users are welcome to participate. Please notify after purchasing ticket.

・We ask that persons with following conditions refrain from participating: Expecting mothers, persons with heart ailments and/or serious medical conditions, persons prone to motion sickness, inebriated persons, persons experiencing discomfort.

・Disclaimer: Participating in this activity and using the virtual reality technology involves certain risks. These risks include, but are not limited to, the risk of nausea, dizziness, disorientation, visual abnormalities, injury or other discomfort. Please proceed with caution at your own risk.

・Tickets cannot be exchanged or refunded after purchase.

・Online ticket selling will be closed one day before. Please schedule in advance. Directly at the venue, it will also be possible to buy the ticket for the next free show.