Vortex. Virtual Reality Experiences
The L.E.V Matadero festival presents Noire, produced by Stéphane Foenkinos and Pierre-Alain Giraud. This work is an immersive augmented reality experience based on the work of Tania de Montaigne that vindicates the figure of Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old black teenager who, in 1955, refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Arrested and determined to plead her innocence, Claudette took the city to court in an act of bravery that preceded that of Rosa Parks but was relegated to oblivion.
This work transports the viewer to the heart of racial segregation in Alabama through augmented reality, creating an intimate and revealing dialogue between present and past. Noire invites the audience to inhabit Claudette’s memory, honor it, and reflect on the importance of making visible stories essential to collective memory.
The experience is a production of Novaya, a studio dedicated to creating immersive art projects that utilize augmented reality to tell meaningful stories. Through the collaboration of artists, engineers, and producers, Novaya develops virtual and interactive environments where technological innovation serves the storytelling. Noire, presented at the Cannes Film Festival, is a prime example of this philosophy, demonstrating how augmented reality and culture can work in tandem to create experiences with both social and artistic impact.
The project, which seamlessly blends art and technology, was awarded the Prize for Best Immersive Work at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.
Taller
18 to 21 september
Thursday 18 and Sunday 21:
12:00, 13:00, 16:00,
17:00, 18:00, 19:00, 20:00
Friday 19 and Saturday 20:
12:00, 13:00, 16:00, 17:00,
18:00, 19:00, 20:00, 21:00
Minimum recommended age 13 years
Duration: Duration: 45 min / Part VR: 33 min
Language: Spanish, English, French, Italian, Chinese, Korean
Price: 10 €
Credits:
“Colored, the Unknown Life of Claudette Colvin” directed by Stéphane Foenkinos and Pierre-Alain Giraud, based on the work by Tania de Montaigne, produced by Novaya in partnership with the Centre Pompidou, co-produced with Flash Forward Entertainment (Taiwan).
With the support of :
CNC, National Center for Cinema and the Moving Image.
The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region.
TAICCA Immersive Content Grant International Co-funding or Co-Productions.
The French Institute.
FACE FOUNDATION as part of the “French Immersion” program.
Financiado por la Unión Europea-NextGenerationEU
Vortex. Virtual Reality Experiences
Directed by May Abdalla and Barry Gene Murphy, IMPULSE: PLAYING WITH REALITY is a mixed reality experience that, with an immersive narrative approach, proposes a contemporary perspective on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This installation immerses the public in the minds of those who live on the border between order and chaos, questioning the discourses of pathologization that have marked the experience of those with this unique form of cognition.
Forty minutes long and narrated in English by Tilda Swinton, this mixed reality experience invites the audience to immerse themselves in the stories of four people whose decisions have defined their lives. The project presents diverse narratives in a colorful and meticulously constructed setting, where the boundaries between reality and perception are blurred, offering an accurate insight into the creativity, chaos, and intensity of ADHD.
Despite being widely misunderstood, ADHD can have a profound effect on those who experience it, which is why awareness is critical and can transform lives. Through artistic production, this work proposes an ingenious play with first-person narratives that aid in understanding the lives of a large part of the population affected by this disorder.
This project received the Venice Achievement Prize at the last edition of the Venice International Film Festival (2024).
Nave 0
18 to 21 september
Thursday 18 and Sunday 21:
12:00, 13:00, 16:00, 17:00,
18:00, 19:00, 20:00
Friday 19 and Saturday 20:
12:00, 13:00, 16:00, 17:00,
18:00, 19:00, 20:00, 21:00
Impulse: Playing with Reality is a new work by Anagram, co-produced by Floréal & France Télévisions.
Impulse has been supported by Meta VR for Good, France Télévisions, CNC, Agog, City of Paris, and Unity Charitable Fund, a fund of Tides Foundation. Impulse was presented at the 2023 Venice Gap-Financing Market and Tribeca Creators Market.
Minimum recommended age 13 years
Duration: 60 min / Part VR: 40 min
Language: Spanish, English
Price: 10 €
Financiado por la Unión Europea-NextGenerationEU
Vortex. Virtual Reality Experiences
French artist and performer Adelin Schweitzer, a key figure in contemporary art linked to immersive technologies, arrives at L.E.V. Matadero 2025 with The Sutherland test, one of his most renowned proposals to date. A performance that breaks with the conventions of Extended Reality (ER) to enter an unknown territory, where “seeing less” can mean “perceiving more.”
At the center of this unsettling installation is the BUD, a custom-designed helmet that suppresses vision. Through a sensory deprivation protocol, participants are guided into an altered perception, freed from the dominance of the visual. The session, presented as a mysterious technological demonstration, is led by the enigmatic collective VESM, whose practices question the contemporary cult of the image and digital saturation.
This work unfolds as a liminal, uncomfortable and revealing experience, where speculative narrative intertwines with technological critique in a performance that destabilizes the viewer from within.
With more than twenty works presented on international platforms such as Ars Electronica, SAT Montréal, ARCO Madrid, or the Chroniques Biennial, Adelin Schweitzer has established himself as one of the most incisive creators in the RX scene. His artistic practice, developed in collaboration with the Marseille studioles laboratoires deletere, subverts the promises of technological innovation to create authentic manuals of self-defense in the face of a hyper-technologized world.
Nave 0
18 to 21 september
Thursday 18 and Sunday 21:
12:30, 17.00, 19.00
Friday 19 and Saturday 20:
12:30, 17.00, 19.00, 21.30
Warning! This experience contains strobe lights and intense physical stimuli. It is not recommended for people who are photosensitive, epileptic, or have heart conditions. Viewer discretion is advised.
Minimum recommended age 16 years
Duration: 90 min / Part VR: 80 min
Language: Spanish
Price: 10 €
CREDITS
ARTISTIC DIRECTION: ADELIN SCHWEITZER
WRITE & PLAY: FRED SECHET & ADELIN SCHWEITZER
DRAMATURGY: MARION VINCENT
SOFTWARE DEVELOPEMENT: GAËTAN PARSEIHIAN
SOUND DESIGN: GAËTAN PARSEIHIAN
CO-PRODUCTION: OSOSPHÈRE, DELETERE
PARTNERS & SUPPORTS: RÉGION GRAND EST, VILLE DE MARSEILLE, RÉGION SUD, DARK EUPHORIA
Financiado por la Unión Europea-NextGenerationEU
Vortex. Virtual Reality Experiences
South African director Rick Treweek‘s virtual reality experience, Uncanny Alley, winner of the Best Immersive World award at the 2022 Raindance Festival, explores the current state of the Metaverse from a small corner of the VRChat virtual universe.
VRChat is an ever-expanding space driven by a passionate community that has been creating and sharing virtual worlds, avatars, and interactive experiences since 2015. An active and freely accessible social environment where we can interact in real time with other users while navigating through fascinating worlds, which we can also create ourselves. From this platform, the Uncanny Alley project addresses various topics and concepts of the Metaverse based on the real world, inspired by the communities that are building the foundations of the open Metaverse, such as M3 (Metaverse Makers) and The MVC (Metaverse Crew).
During the experience, formatted as a group-guided tour, we follow Gh0st, Glitch, and other Metazins as they navigate their little part of the Metaverse. Gh0st has disappeared while working on systems to cross worlds, so we follow the clues and revelations of this immersive universe until we discover an existence beyond what seemed possible. The fourth wall of the Metaverse is broken, revealing a glimpse of the open Metaverse.
DIMAD. Central de diseño
18 to 21 september
Thursday 18 and Sunday 21:
12:00, 13:00, 16:00, 17:00,
18:00, 19:00, 20:00
Friday 19 and Saturday 20:
12:00, 13:00, 16:00, 17:00,
18:00, 19:00, 20:00, 21:00
Direction and creation of the Metaverse: Rick Treweek
Music: Dollar and Pound
Sound: Lexnevilleza
Minimum recommended age 13 years
Duration: 60 min / Part VR: 45 min
Language: Spanish
Price: 10 €
Financiado por la Unión Europea-NextGenerationEU
Vortex. Virtual Reality Experiences
During this edition of L.E.V Matadero, Carles Castaño Oliveiros presents 2025/…, a mixed reality experience produced by Servicios Inmersivos that challenges the public with a critical view of contemporary society. The installation immerses participants in a dystopian environment where, through interactive tours—such as searching for a room to rent or performing operations in clandestine operating rooms—the tensions in our relationship with technology, social control, and material and affective precariousness become evident. During the immersion, they must make decisions that affect both individual experience and social destiny. With a strong narrative and political charge, the piece transforms the space into a speculative fiction that reflects, with irony, the contradictions of today’s society, creating a space for reflection on the present and possible futures.
Carles Castaño (Girona, 1992) is a digital creator specialized in real-time 3D art, with a background in programming, illustration, and visual arts. He has exhibited his work in festivals and institutions such as Arts Santa Mònica, Grec, IDEAL, Bombas Gens, MIRA, or Hyper House. He currently directs Immersive Services, a hybrid space that bridges the gap between a production company and an artistic laboratory, developing immersive and collaborative XR projects in dialogue with institutions such as the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Barcelona City Council.
DIMAD. Central de diseño
18 to 21 september
Thursday 18 and Sunday 21:
12:00, 13:00, 16:00, 17:00,
18:00, 19:00, 20:00
Friday 19 and Saturday 20:
12:00, 13:00, 16:00, 17:00,
18:00, 19:00, 20:00, 21:00
Original Idea, Direction, Art & 3D: Carles Castaño Oliveros
Developer: Adrián Puig Arto
Art & Assistant Director: Sau-Ching Wong
Soundscape & Musical Composition: Juan Cristóbal Saavedra
3D Modeling: Vertebra Studios
Executive Production: Servicios Inmersivos
A Co-production with: Hyper House
Minimum recommended age 16 years
Duration: 50 min / Part VR: 35 min
Language: Spanish, English
Price:10 €
Financiado por la Unión Europea-NextGenerationEU
