Esch2022 at Ars Electronica Festival 2020

Exhibition / Livestream / Performance

From 9 to 13 September, Esch2022 – European Capital of Culture presented Ars Electronica Esch2022 Luxembourg Garden, an interactive multimedia experience exploring the past, present and possible future of Belval – a former steel production site and now the centre of major urban, economic and cultural development. The media installation called “ANYWHERE” connected users in Linz and Esch across real and virtual spaces in an immersive experience inspired by the aesthetics and control functions of video games.

The gaming sessions taking place in Linz will gave rise to performances in real time at the Belval site. The performer, equipped with two GoPro cameras, could move on the Plancher des Coulées and the Haut Fourneau A in Belval following the commands of the “guide” in Linz. The public in Luxembourg was able to attend these performances. The performer was interpreted by Yuko Kominami, a professional dancer. Visitors in Belval were invited to watch these performances live and via screens onsite and at Annexe22, Place de la Résistance (Brillplatz) in Esch-sur-Alzette.

The physical exhibition at Haut-Fourneau A was also accessible and open for visitors for the duration of the festival. Translating the fantasy worlds of gaming culture into artistic explorations, Mary-Audrey Ramirez constructs a world of soft sculpture creatures, an animal kingdom reflecting our own human needs, projections, and desires. As part of the journey through the former hot furnaces her sculptures appear as disruptive interludes contributing to further blurring the boundaries between fiction and reality, the physical and the digital space.

Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica Festival is Europe’s largest festival for art, technology and society. Adapting to a post-Covid situation, the 2020 edition In Kepler’s Gardens has been designed to be a global journey mapping the ‘new’ world. A journey in which it is not we who set out to travel, but our ideas and projects, spanning a global network in which we gather to discuss what needs to be done.

This exhibition of Esch2022, in partnership with Ars Electronica, marks the beginning of a collaboration which will lead to a large joint exhibition in 2022.

Extend the Ars Electronica Festival experience:
https://youtu.be/93k19N4TsNw
https://ars.electronica.art/keplersgardens/en/