Digital art festival Recto VRso takes place on April 12-16, 2023.
Crédits photos : Laval Virtual / Prisma
The International Digital Art festival Recto VRso is preparing its 6th edition as part of the Laval Virtual exhibition. On April 12-16, 2023, several known artists of the festival are invited to exhibit their artworks. Performances and shows are also planned. We reviewed the full programme with Julien Lomet, Festival Manager.
9 international digital artists invited
The Recto VRso festival was created in 2018 by the artist and researcher Judith Guez. “Recto VRso creates spaces of exchanges around artistics forms between real and virtual, and presents different hybridizations and emergences”, as Julien Lomet recalls. The main exhibition takes place at the heart of the Laval Virtual exhibition, close to the booths presenting the best innovations around virtual reality and the metaverse. The OFF part of the digital art festival is located in a new place dedicated to art and culture in Laval, the Quarante.
“This edition is a bit special”, explains Julien Lomet. There will be 7 artworks by 7 artists who already took part in Recto VRso and won a Laval Virtual Award. On the occasion of the 25th edition of the Laval Virtual exhibition, “it’s a way for us to thank them for their involvement and their huge work thanks to which the festival has been shining for 5 years”. The artists who will be present: Anna Pompermaier, Elise Morin, Margherita Bergamo, Mélodie Mousset, Raphaël Isdant, Juan Le Parc, Chiachi Chang.
Digital art shows planned
One of the artists, Margherita Bergamo, winner in 2019 with its artwork EVE 3.0, will do a performance during the festival as part of the Art&VR Gallery. For 3 days, she will invite 12 people to put a virtual reality headset on. They will live, through her eyes, an immersive and interactive dance performance. Another performance is planned after the Laval Virtual Awards ceremony on Thursday 13 April.
The festival will also propose performances and shows as part of the Recto VRso OFF. Augmented shows will happen in the evening, in the new cultural place of Laval, the Quarante, as well as concerts, conferences, etc. “These evenings will show that digital art has many faces. It’s not simply installations, there are also performances”.
At the Quarante, the OFF will highlight the work of several universities that have been partners of the festival for many years. Among them: Université Paris 8, Université Rennes 2, Université Montpellier and UCO Angers. This part will exhibit artworks and installations created by students in fine arts and digital creation. “Like the ReVolution competitions of Laval Virtual, we have our heart on giving the chance to young digital art talents to present their work.”
Recto VRso OFF: 3 event evenings!
During the OFF part of Recto Vrso at the Quarante, three event evenings are organized, on top of live performances. All in all, 18 events are planned all along the festival, from Wednesday 12 to Sunday 16. A part of the programme is open to children, from 5 years old. There will be for example a guided tour of the OFF exhibition, a projection of cartoons in collaboration with the SIGGRAPH, workshops-shows, conferences and concerts.
Exclusive conferences (in French) and concerts takes place on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, open to all ages:
- Thursday 13 April at 18:30: “The screen in the parent/child relationship”, conference presented by Mathilde Mercier
- Friday 14 April at 18:30: “The general public confronted with digital works from live performance to heritage”, roundtable lead by Jean-François Jégo (Associate Professor, Université Paris 8), Pierre Jamet (Director of the Laval Theatre), Georges Gagneré (Director), Judith Guez (Founder of the Recto VRso festival)
- Saturday 15 April at 17:00: Show « L’Ombre », by Georges Gagneré (from 8 years old)
- Saturday 15 April at 18:15: Concert and mapping projection, by the students of Paris 8 and Rennes 2 (from 8 years old)
- Saturday 15 April at 19:00 : Concert-mapping by Nino Cadiou (from 8 years old)
The Recto VRso 2023 festival takes place on April 12-16 and is open to both professionals and the general public. The Espace Mayenne welcomes the Art&VR Gallery and the Quarante is the heart of the OFF. The artwork selection is ready to be discovered on the festival website.