{"id":210917,"date":"2025-08-20T13:45:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T11:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iffr.com\/en\/?p=210917"},"modified":"2025-08-20T17:18:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T15:18:46","slug":"blog-eurimages-new-lab-award-winner-duchampiana-vr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iffr.com\/en\/blog-eurimages-new-lab-award-winner-duchampiana-vr","title":{"rendered":"The sky\u2019s the limit: the innovative spirit of Eurimages New Lab Award-winner Duchampiana"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cYou need to be a little bit crazy to follow Lilian into this idea and to make it work,\u201d says Sarah Arnaud of Tchikiboum, one of the producers on the artistic VR installation Duchampiana<\/strong>. The piece premiered in Venice Immersive 2024 after its presentation in IFFR Pro\u2019s CineMart and work-in-progress platform Darkroom \u2013 where it won a Eurimages New Lab Outreach Award for innovative, non-conventional and experimental works exploring new forms of expression.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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Reversing traditional restrictions placed on the female form throughout art history and beyond, the work invites the audience to ascend an infinite staircase \u2013 a radical reimagining of one of art history\u2019s most notorious paintings, Duchamp\u2019s Nude Descending A Staircase No 2<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project\u2019s director Lilian Hess comes from a documentary and narrative film background and experimented with the idea first in a short film form. \u201cLater when I started working with immersive media\u201d, she recounts \u201cI was like, \u2018oh, it needs to actually involve movement. That is what this story needs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technologically, this meant the complex challenge of asking a stair climber to communicate with a VR headset. \u201cProbably since day one workshopping this project, we were discouraged from making a VR piece on a stair climber\u201d, says Hess. \u201cBut I think we went into this with very open eyes\u201d, she explains, of the process that took place over three years and two countries \u2013 co-produced by Tchikiboum (France) and mYndstorm productions (Germany). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If ever the team was discouraged, it certainly wasn\u2019t at IFFR, where the project was presented in CineMart Immersive in 2022 and later at the Darkroom work-in-progress platform in 2024, just six months before its Venice premiere. In 2021 it won a special mention for the 4DR Studios Award, and at Darkroom picked up a \u20ac30,000 prize as the winner of one of the inaugural Eurimages New Lab Awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eurimages New Lab Award-winners IFFR 2024: Lilian Hess (middle right) & Sarah Arnaud (second from left)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

IFFR and CPH:DOX were both selected to present the Eurimages New Lab Awards<\/a> for the initial cycle, and have since awarded eight projects in total. The Innovation Award (\u20ac20,000) supports projects in development that promote experimentation, while the Outreach Award (\u20ac30,000) supports work-in-progress projects focused on audience engagement.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe could push the piece to be not just good but flawless.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Duchampiana<\/strong>\u2019s main innovation according to Hess can be found in \u201cthe custom motion tracking system that we implemented, which essentially uses AI to read human motion, to then send signals to the stair climber and the gaming engine to react to one’s movements.\u201d The Eurimages New Lab Award, according to Arnaud, coming in the advanced stage that it did, meant that \u201cwe could push the piece to be not just good but flawless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Duchampiana<\/strong> on display in Venice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Combining innovative technological spirit with the emotion of the subject was where the success lay, according to Arnaud, not least through the motion capture of dancer Chihiro Kawasaki ascending the staircase. \u201cWhat she managed to do is to be able to convey real emotion just through the movement of climbing stairs, which is very difficult.\u201d Hess says in a tech-heavy process, it was her guiding principle as a director simply to \u201cbring everyone back to the emotion, the idea, the feel of the piece.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right from its premiere, it was obvious this wasn\u2019t lost on the audience. \u201cWhen you arrive in Venice and the first person goes on the stair climber, takes off the headset and says \u2018this was beautiful\u2019 \u2013 I could have left the island, my job was done!,\u201d says Arnaud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cA parallel universe in which, as women, we are granted the space to climb, to excel, to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStairs are such a metaphorically charged space\u201d, reflects Hess. \u201cI love that people had very different takeaways: from more literal, to spiritual and religious. People had experiences where they felt it was about colonisation, there were people who felt it was about ridding yourself of your burdens.\u201d The most rewarding of all, according to Hess, were the feminist takeaways: \u201can experience of freedom from patriarchal values, a parallel universe in which, as women, we are granted the space to climb, to excel, to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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VR still: Duchampiana<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Despite deciding against a deliberate impact campaign for the project, the team were especially heartened to pick up the Impact Prize at the NewImages Festival in Paris, where the jury praised its \u201cpolitical stance\u201d as \u201ca bold experience\u201d that \u201cchallenges social constructs by inviting users to physically transgress them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cOne of the main objectives of the award is to help the creators of the projects to experiment and innovate.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Eurimages programme manager Sergio Garcia de Leaniz told us he was delighted with the impact of the New Lab Awards so far. \u201cOne of the main objectives of the award is to help the creators of the projects to experiment and innovate as well as finding their audiences,\u201d he said. \u201cThe selection of projects supported in 2024 at major international festivals speaks for itself, while the quality of the projects selected by the initiatives hosting them in 2025 has improved even further.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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VR still: Duchampiana<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Winning the Eurimages New Lab Outreach Award in particular was an indication of the expanded thinking the team have towards distribution. Next on the agenda is speaking to institutions like museums or other spaces to look for a permanent home for the work, a search for alternative audiences that was fundamental from the outset and that was emboldened by the Outreach Award. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt gave the last push \u2013 I think without that, probably the project wouldn\u2019t have launched in the way it did,\u201d concludes Arnaud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Fraser White<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\t

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A list with articles<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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