MONTREAL.- The PHI Centre presents the work of London based Italian artist Marco Brambilla and a selection of award-winning VR works
To celebrate its 10th anniversary, the PHI Centre will host a unique and powerful summer program on themes of the seven levels of purgatory, pop culture, a reeducation camp in China, a vanishing language in Nepal, and mental illness and surrealism told through animation.
The PHI Centre's new program features a selection of four award-winning virtual reality works from around the world, ranging from the United Kingdom, Canada, Nepal to Kazakhstan, and the presentation of Heaven's Gate, Marco Brambilla's new monumental work in immersive projection and virtual reality.
The programming
Heaven’s Gate by Marco Brambilla
A lavish, satirical, and vertigo-inducing meditation on the Hollywood “Dream Factory,” Heaven's Gate is a work of digital psychedelia inspired by the seven levels of purgatory.
Two immersive Renaissance tableaux for our hyper-mediated digital era, these artworks by Marco Brambilla will engulf you in landscapes of pop-culture iconography.
Marco Brambilla is an Italian-born Canadian contemporary artist based in London, known for his projects re-contextualizing pop culture imagery and video and as a film director. His work has been shown at the Venice International Film Festival, the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum among others. Brambilla has also worked with some of the biggest names in contemporary art, film and music including Marina Abramović, Kanye West, Cate Blanchett or Sylvester Stallone to name a few.
Horizons VR
The unique approaches of these four VR pieces are testimony to how the medium has gone beyond our simple fascination with technology and how it’s now being used to experiment and explore new storytelling possibilities—challenging the medium itself. Their subject matter ranges from interpersonal relationships, culture, memory, neurodiversity, and stories of political and social urgency.
• Goliath: Playing with Reality: by Barry Gene Murphy, UK, France, 25 minutes, 2021
• Marco & Polo Go Round: by Benjamin Steiger Levine, Canada, Belgium, 13 minutes, 2021
• Kusunda: by Felix Gaedtke and Gayatri Parameswaran, Germany, Nepal, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, 23 minutes, 2021
• Reeducated: by Sam Wolson, USA, Kazakhstan, 21 minutes, 2021
INVERSE/ THE FUTURE IS OFTEN A STEP BEHIND
In partnership with Fierté Montréal, INVERSE/ THE FUTURE IS OFTEN A STEP BEHIND is a free exhibit presenting an experimental documentary in three tableaus by Nicolas Jenkins, which aims to question the prevailing assimilation of 2SLGBTQIA+ identities. A special thanks to the SDC Vieux-Montréal and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec for their support. For more information about the free programming, visit our website.
