This year’s Concorto VR space, organised in collaboration with the AN-ICON research group of the University of Milan, features Ito Meikyū, an immersive work by artist Boris Labbé, whose experimental short film La chute was screened at Concorto in 2018. The experience reflects on the (re)mediation of Japanese culture, while challenging the “rules” of virtual reality.
Ito Meikyū, which literally means “thread labyrinth”, does not aim to “teleport” the user to another dimension, imaginative and distant, but rather intuitively brings them into contact with three topoi of Japanese culture: the technique of fukinuki yatai, a unique form of architectural sectioning that allows the viewer to see through the structures of buildings, and two classic texts from the Heian period, The Tale of Genji and The Pillow Book. With this work, Labbé challenges the limits of VR language, exploring some of the desires that give life to this medium: the ability to tune into the inner world of others, the possibility of generating other worlds that unfold before our eyes, and the freedom to move within a space that can resemble both a claustrophobic labyrinth and an infinite map we have to explore.
Boris Labbé
After studying at the École supérieure d’art de Tarbes and at the École de cinéma d’animation d’Angoulême, the artwork of Boris Labbé (1987, France) quickly made its way around the world, featured in contemporary art exhibitions, international film festivals, and audiovisual concerts. His films and video installations secured him some fifty awards and praise around the world, including the Golden Nica award at Ars Electronica Festival in Linz and the Grand Prix at Japan Media Arts Festival in Tokyo. Between 2023 and 2024, he developed and carried out two landmark projects: Ito Meikyū, his first virtual reality project (produced by Sacrebleu Productions), and Glass House, a video scenography in collaboration with composer Lucas Fagin (produced by the Ensemble Cairn).
Where and when: From Monday 18 to Saturday 23 August, from 4pm to 6pm, at Circolo Arci Rathaus, Via Pietro Giordani 4, Piacenza
Free access (Arci membership card holders), booking required through Eventbrite.
Event organised by Margherita Fontana; project carried out within the framework of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 – Research and Innovation program (grant agreement No. 834033 AN-ICON), funded by the European Research Council (ERC) and hosted by the Department of Philosophy “Piero Martinetti” of the University of Milan as part of the “Departments of Excellence 2023-2027” project awarded by the Ministry of University and Research (MUR).
