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 tenuous relationship with the transitory nature of reality
How does one relate to a world of things that are passing? Are we a part of it? Or are we just looking at it? And what about the body – is it something that we are or that we have?
There is an ambivalence here that prompts the question: could this be the origin of all melancholy?
In Songs for a Passerby you will autonomously walk through a musical dreamscape shown in a VR headset. You are following your own 3D mirror image and on the way you will pass by various scenes: a dying horse, a choir of murmuring people, two playing dogs.
Songs for a Passerby is a meditative quest that allows you to step outside reality for a moment and look at yourself. As a puppeteer of your own body you will be entering a poetic space where the melancholy question arises: is this me passing by moments, or is it rather the moments passing by me?
In 2023 Songs for a Passerby won the Venice Immersive Grand Prize at the Venice Film Festival.
Developed with the financial support of The Performing Arts Fund NL, the Netherlands Film Fund and Creative Industries Fund NL
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