In recent years Virtual Reality (VR) has become one of the most exciting trends emerging within the world of art. With the exhibition CC LAB, Copenhagen Contemporary takes VR into the laboratory exploring the new and seemingly boundless reality of VR. VR can take you to exotic and strange places and off into dreamlike worlds while you yourself remain firmly rooted in the exhibition rooms. While this new technology has inspired game developers for years, artists and storytellers have only just begun to explore the possibilities offered by VR. CC introduces a range of Danish and international artists who experiment with Virtual Reality in order to push boundaries and open up new spaces for art to inhabit – and explore.
CC LAB occupies two of CC’s huge halls. In Hall 1 the Danish studio Makropol presents the total installation, ANTHROPIA (2017): A VR performance where visitors are sent on a voyage through the virtual worlds of five different artists.
In Hall 2 works by a number of internationally acclaimed contemporary artists will be on show – each presenting their individual interpretation of how VR can be used in the arts. The artists normally work in a wide variety of media: painting, sculpture, installation and video. In the new VR works produced by Khora Contemporary these traditional media are integrated, and the exhibition provides visitors with an opportunity to explore virtual universes created by Christian Lemmerz (GE/DK), Paul McCarthy (US), Tony Oursler (US) and Erik Parker (GE/US). In Hall 2 it is also possible to experience the recognized VR drawing program Tilt Brush.
HALL 1. In recent years the Danish studio Makropol has made a name for itself in the VR world, presenting works both at home and abroad. Now they occupy CC’s Hall 1 with the 400-m2 VR total installation, ANTHROPIA. ANTHROPIA is a cinematic VR performance, in which performance art, installation art and VR meet in a 60-minute-long event. In CC’s huge hall visitors, wearing VR goggles, will wander freely through the installation, which correlates on a scale of 1:1 with the physical scenography of the exhibition space. The work’s ceremonial narrative is divided into five chapters and takes place on a miniature golf course. The road to ANTHROPIA starts on Fairway 1, but with every step you take into synthetic reality, all that is familiar gradually dissolves, and a new reality takes shape. ANTHROPIA is Makropol’s latest and most ambitious work to date, and is part of their inter-aesthetic project, TRAVERSE – an encounter between artists from different disciplines in a single work. The artists behind the video chapters are Therese Willstedt (SE), Rikke Benborg (DK), Ali Abbasi (IR), Julian Juhlin (DK) and Johan Knattrup Jensen (DK). See important information about booking and prices for ANTHROPIA below.
HALL 2. Here CC presents a range of artists and their individual takes on how art and technology can come together in VR works produced by the visionary Danish VR production company Khora Contemporary.
Artists: Makropol & Ali Abbasi, Rikke Benborg, Johan Knattrup Jensen, Julian Juhlin and Therese Willstedt, Christian Lemmerz, Paul McCarthy, Tony Oursler, Erik Parker
Copenhagen
Copenhagen Contemporary
CC LAB. Virtual Reality
23 september - 26 november 2017
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