Palais Augmenté 3 : program
From 23 June to 25 June 2023, the first festival dedicated to artistic creation in augmented reality and immersive cultural innovations returns to the Grand Palais Éphémère for a 3rd edition on the theme of "the avatar, virtual bodies and their relationship to physical, political and social bodies". Check out the programme!
This festival, an initiative of Fisheye and the Rmn - Grand-Palais, aims to take stock of technological innovations in culture.
Discover a series of original works in augmented reality created by international artists and accessible from your smartphones, interactive digital experiences in spaces called "labs" and a public agora, tackling themes linked to contemporary digital creation!
The artists
This 3rd edition of the Palais Augmenté festival will feature the works of artists Liu Bolin, Lu Yang, Tobias Gremmler and Salomé Chatriot: original commissions created especially for the occasion!
About the artist
Liu Bolin was born in 1973 in Shandong, China and studied sculpture at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, graduating with an MFA in 2001.
Better known as “The Invisible Man” in media circles. Liu Bolin discusses the social concerns of his home country through his artistic practice, most prominently through his ‘camouflage’ installations. Traversing mediums such as performance, photography , Liu Bolin dissects the tense relationship between the individual and society by ‘disappearing’ into environments which are sites of contention and criticism. His "Hiding in the City" series has been displayed in numerous museums and institutions across the globe. Inspired by his powerful visual messages, artists and institutions and organizations such The Louvre (Paris, France), Harper's Bazaar Magazine, Centre Pompidou, Ruinart, Moncler, Fred, Renault, JR, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Jon Bon Jovi, Kenny Scharf etc. have invited Liu Bolin to collaborate on creative projects.
About his art
The Tightrope Walker
This physical and digital installation is a reminder that man and his consciousness must be in complete synchronisation. At the origins of life, one cell became two, nothingness became complexity. Everything was manifested by the will of the Creator, of which man is the mirror. Thus spoke Zarathustra, and thus reminds us The Tightrope Walker by Liu Bolin.
About the artist
Salomé Chatriot merges elements of technology with organic parts to create physical and virtual spaces where electronic sculptures and digital images coexist.
In her work, physical processes like breathing and heart beating activate mechanical processes, resulting in a symbiosis between human bodies and technological devices. While refusing to embrace a prevailing pessimism about technological progress, she seeks for opportunities to expand our intimate relationships with technologies. In addition, she explores issues of identity, gender and sexuality through a distinctly erotic component, while it also challenges dominant narratives. Through her hybrid, disturbing yet optimistic artistic language, Chatriot is capable of generating unconventional approaches relating to technological tools.
About her art
Bulles Augmentées
A set of physical sculptures from which virtual bubbles seem to escape. These bubbles, whose texture recalls the artist's marked aesthetic, carry one of Salomé Chatriot's breaths.
About the artist
Multimedia artist Lu Yang creates fantastical, often painful, and shocking images which represent an interdisciplinary blend of religion, philosophy, neuroscience, psychology and modern technology, as well as the allusions to real life forms and structures of natural and religious origin. The output of Lu Yang’s artistic practice spans game engines, 3D-animated films, video game installations, holograms, motion capture performances, virtual reality and software manipulation. The artist also collaborates with acclaimed scientists, psychologists, performers, dancers, experimental composers, music producers, robotics companies and pop stars. Recent solo exhibitions are at: Oi!Glassie, Hong Kong (2023); Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland (2023); Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK (2022-23); PalaisPopulaire, Berlin, Germany (2022 - 23); ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Aarhus, Denmark (2021–22); Spiral, Tokyo, Japan (2018); M WOODS, Beijing, China (2017–18); MOCA Cleveland, Cleveland, USA (2017); Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), Beijing, China (2011); and Fukuoka Asia Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan (2011).
About his art
Electromagnetic Brainology – at the nexus of fire and water
In this artwork, two deities are represented. They are associated on the one hand with two of the "great elements" (bhūta) of Buddhism: fire and water, and on the other hand with two sources of pain in the nervous system. The work is a fantasy of the artist for whom a physical and spiritual harmony would lead to the optimization of our cognitive potential. Religion, medicine and neuroscience are the main themes explored by Lu Yang.
About the artist
For over thirty years, Tobias Gremmler has been creating new artistic forms on the border between the real and virtual worlds. Through his interdisciplinary collaborations, he explores the intersections between digital art, music, theatre and dance. He is also a teacher, author and composer of theatre music. His work has been exhibited in museums and art festivals such as the Venice Biennale, Ars Electronica and the V&A Museum.
About his work
Tobias Gremmler's Untitled highlights the (dis)balance between humanity and its environment. It consists of a kinetic physical and augmented reality installation. The installation is a 2m² cube suspended from the ceiling. Virtual 3D characters and physical and mathematical simulations interact with the cube and its environment.
The Labs
Enjoy innovative and engaging experiences thanks to the Labs! Installations designed by various museums, technology players and art schools to enable you to meet, exchange ideas and learn about new technologies.
- Sur le fil - by la Cité des sciences et de l’industrie
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For the 3rd edition of the Palais augmenté festival, the Cité des sciences et de l'industrie is presenting Sur le fil installation, created as part of the research and development projects of the digital design teams. This device projects you into a virtual world and invites you to walk, like a tightrope walker, on a cable stretched between two buildings in an imaginary city. The kinaesthetic experience is compounded by the uncertainty of the crossing...
- Fantastic Smartphones - by l’ECAL (Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne)
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Is the smartphone, which was initially seen as an extension, still a source of pleasure or, on the contrary, a source of alienation? The Bachelor Media & Interaction Design students at ECAL have come up with some answers in a series of installations that take an original and immersive look at different aspects of this issue.
- Immersive Gallery - by les GOBELINS Paris
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Interactive installations, immersive experiences, VR video games, AI-assisted photos and videos... In this lab, students from the various courses of study at GOBELINS Paris will show you a selection of their educational projects combining creation, experimentation and innovation.
- Corps acteurs - by l’ENSAD
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The Ensad lab is presenting three virtual reality devices created by the Spatial Media research group. These devices examine the role of the immersed body, or rather the immersed bodies, in a virtual reality experience: on the one hand, the represented body, the avatar that makes its presence felt in virtual space, but also the embodied body of the immersed user, the active driving force behind the experience.
- Symbiosis - by ISEA et Cube Garges
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ISEA2023 will feature three installations from its program: Trash Dwellers by Sam Twidale & Marija Avramovic, a 2D printed sculpture enhanced by augmented reality by Damara Ingles, and the ISEA Augmented Catalogue in virtual reality. The 28th International Symposium on Digital Creation, ISEA2023 is a major event on the global digital creation scene, and aims to strengthen the dialogue between artists, researchers, engineers, designers and entrepreneurs from the cultural and creative industries who are involved in advances in research and creation.
- Eternel Mucha - by le Grand Palais Immersif
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Eternal Mucha is the new exhibition organised by Grand Palais Immersif (a subsidiary of the Rmn - Grand Palais) in collaboration with the Mucha Foundation, Prague. This immersive, interactive and sensory experience takes place in the modular hall of the Opéra Bastille and allows visitors to discover the internationally renowned Czech artist Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939). He became famous in the Paris of the Belle Epoque thanks to his posters, but his political and philosophical thinking made him stand out. As part of Palais Augmenté 3, a set of interactive screens will allow visitors to create their own Mucha poster in small groups.
- Fight back - by francetv
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Behind a breathtaking and fun adventure game using hand recognition, Fight Back offers an introduction to self defence techniques, in response to violence against women, and a discovery of the history of these women fighters forgotten by history. Synopsis: Long ago, the first Star defeated the Darkness. Now, as the shadows resurface, the stars are about to disappear. You are the last-born Star, and must free your sisters from the Darkness. With their help, you will reveal your incredible potential, and learn the secrets of the shadows and the light.
- Gigapixels - by le Palais des Beaux arts de Lille
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As part of the renovation of its spaces, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille is offering you the chance to explore some twenty works digitised in gigapixels and displayed on giant 4K screens. Using a touch-sensitive navigation interface, browse through the paintings, drawings and art objects in minute detail, revealing the interplay of materials, brushstrokes and other imperceptible details.
- Immersive art and industry by EDF
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EDF is presenting three immersive virtual reality experiences, all of which have one thing in common: a desire to tell the story of electricity through the eyes of artists. The artists, Ferdinand Dervieux, Dimitri Daniloff, Clément Soulmagnon and Ugo Arsac, have created immersive experiences that can be discovered on the lab and are part of the EDF Odyssélec programme, an artistic, educational and cultural approach that highlights EDF's industrial heritage to help everyone discover electricity generation, its energy mix and the issues involved.
- HYPNO (DÔME 360°) - by l'Opéra National de Paris
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In HYPNO, Marie Amachoukeli is musing on the historic meeting between Mesmer - a doctor who was the precursor of hypnosis methods - and Mozart. The works of both geniuses are invoked in a unique visual and sound journey. Using the principles of the Austrian composer, the artist Flavien Berger adds to the sensorial frescoes resulting from the latest digital design techniques, a contemporary musical work that will accompany the spectator in a collective and hypnotic trance. A Pelléas Films production.
- Entrez dans la danse (DÔME 360°) - by Théâtre National de Chaillot
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Entrez dans la danse is an immersive experience inspired by the story of the dancing plague. In a fantastic universe, we follow Enneline, the first woman to be swept away by this dancing epidemic, under the helpless eyes of her lover Melchior. Faced with this surge of people, the authorities remain speechless, hoping to save them by creating a giant dance floor! An experience by Julie Desmet Weaver, produced by Tchikiboum, Small Creative, Hubblo and Underground Sugar
The Giant Lab
Habeas Corpus - L'Oréal, patron of the festival, has given 4 digital artists carte blanche to take you on an immersive journey to discover the different facets of beauty in the future. Using 3D technologies, augmented reality and real-time tracking, artists Inès Alpha, Romain Gauthier, Sam Madhu and Kami explore our representations and value systems.
About the artist
Hailing from Paris, Ines Alpha is an internationally-recognized digital artist who started experimenting with 3D while digging the beauty, fashion, and luxury industries as an art director. She then started to develop her signature style: 3D makeup. Using 3D software and augmented reality to combine makeup with tech, Alpha unfolds a forward-thinking approach to create ethereal, futuristic narratives and a new future within the beauty space. She has collaborated with the creative industry's biggest names such as Dior, Burberry, or Selfridges and some of the pop scene's top artists like Charli XCX, BIBI, or Yelle. Her works have been shown in "Aquaria" at the Maat museum in Lisbon, Art Mûr in Montréal, and Coreana Museum in Seoul, and have been featured in media such as VOGUE, i-D, Wired, and Dazed beauty, among many others.
About the work Metamutations
Inès Alpha has imagined several installations that use augmented reality. In collaboration with the artist Esmay Wagemans, she creates sculptures of human bodies whose heads are augmented by tablets. By approaching the faces of these sculptures, visitors discover their reflections with 3D makeup imagined by the artist. Suspended devices complete her installation, in which visitors are invited to look, in a quiet and intimate space where they get to interact with AR makeup.
About the artist
Kami is the world's first virtual influencer with Down syndrome. Her mission is to make the digital world more inclusive. Born from the need for more representation of the disability community in the virtual space, she was created in partnership with Down Syndrome International. Kami may be virtual, but she is made by over 100 real young women. These volunteers act as the faces, physiques, voices and personalities that Kami embodies. Kami is the only virtual human to be created and run by a collective of the people she represents. She is revolutionary, an agent of change, and the beginning of a new era of digital inclusivity and diversity.
About the work Kami’s room
The visitor will discover Kami through an intimate space, her room. Kami's room is enriched with several interactive digital installations: an interactive wardrobe in which Kami wears outfits designed by artists selected by Amnesty International, a mirror with an augmented reality filter imagined by Ines Alpha, a wall of interactive and inclusive messages that is updated by visitors in real time, and a virtual reality experience.
About the artist
Romain Gauthier is a queer visual artist based in Paris with a background in graphic design and animation. He makes and creates visual pieces that focus on people and identity. His work is an exploration of digital fashion; he specialises in making clothing and headgear that humans can wear in the metaverse, in order to create hybrid digital personas.
About the work Mus3s
Romain Gauthier presents an "augmented fashion show" in which he stages his gallery of Muses. Hybridized bodies, digital extensions, digital textures, visitors take part in this new kind of fashion show by pointing monitors towards the catwalk which become windows on a virtual world. Onscreen, we discover our virtual muses walking the catwalk. The images captured by the spectators are projected live behind the podium.
About the artist
Sam Madhu is a digital artist exploring the art of customization, painting digital skin, and creating alter-egos. Her work features an array of digitally fabricated humanoids — sporting antigravity piercings, metallic skin, fluorescent eyelashes and other elements from a future where alternative beauty is the mainstream.
About the work Lithium Flower
Sam Madhu has designed an installation in which the visitor will be surrounded by her video creations. Will be displayed hybridized bodies with body modifications (skins, jewels, piercings), characters of Sam's futuristic universe. In addition to this visual immersion, she has imagined a soundscape to go along the experience.
The Agora
This year, the conference cycles are evolving: in the centre of the Grand Palais Éphémère, a public square has been set up. You can stop there, have a coffee, observe the crowd, decide what to do next... And there you'll find the Agora: a series of short, impactful speeches by the artists in the program, institutional partners, experts in digital technologies and cultural professionals. Five minutes to tell a story, explain a subject, and thematize a thought. Among the topics addressed by the experts invited by the festival: anatomy of hybridization, transhumanism, society of bodies, virtual icons, decolonization of beauty, ethics and responsibility of major players ...
Practical information
To make the most of the festival, please come equipped with :
· A fully charged mobile phone,
· Headphones or earphones,
· The event's mobile application ios or Android
The Palais Augmenté 3 festival runs from Friday 23 June to Sunday 25 June at the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris, from 10am to 8pm on Friday and Saturday, and from 10am to 6pm on Sunday.
