2023
direction: Celine Daemen
vr art direction: Aron Fels
libretto: Olivier M. Herter
music and sound: Asa Horvitz
sound and mix: Wouter Snoei
production: Silbersee
co-production: Studio Nergens
Muziekgebouw
VIA ZUID
A VR Opera about our unfixed relationship with transient reality.
The piece won the Venice Immersive Grand Prize at the Venice Film Festival, 2023.
How do we relate to a world of passing things? Are we part of it? Or do we merely observe it? Are we a body, or do we have a body? Does this ambivalence perhaps lie at the root of all melancholy?
In Songs for a Passerby, you walk independently, equipped with VR goggles, through a musical dreamscape. You follow your own 3D reflection and pass by various scenes: a dying horse, a choir of people muttering, two dogs playing.
Songs for a Passerby is a meditative quest, where you briefly step outside of reality and look at yourself. As the puppeteer of your own body, you enter a poetic space where the melancholic question arises: am I passing by moments, or are moments passing by me?
Developed with the financial support of The Performing Arts Fund NL, the Netherlands Film Fund and Creative Industries Fund NL.
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