ImMERsion

ImMERsion is an installation with a particular spatial configuration that engages the viewer both physically and psychologically. The latter enters a room of engulfing darkness, devoid of apparent shapes or boundaries. The concrete space of the room transforms into a landscape that is at once imaginary, abstract, and physically explorable by the viewer. The sudden deprivation of one sense intensifies the others. The inability to see compels the viewer to seek alternative points of reference in order to orient themselves and move through the space.

From their very first steps into the room, they feel a wave of air, coming from two misting fans. The sense of touch is heightened by the unexpected texture of the floor, which is neither smooth nor even. The sand covering the surface of the room offers an unusual tactile sensation underfoot, signaling to the viewer that they are no longer walking through a conventional exhibition space.

The darkened space is also filled with a soundscape, created by Lambros Taklis, that seeks to merge a real situation—our presence in the room—with an imaginary landscape—that of being by the sea. Finally, scents evocative of a maritime environment add to the scene.

This immersive installation invites the viewer to see beyond the visible, so that reality may regain its lost density and intensity. The proposed universe is both omnipresent and unlocatable; it reveals a virtuality of our current condition. This journey to the edge of the sea exists in potential form and tends to become real through the viewer, thereby questioning how materiality might exceed matter itself.

In total darkness, where visual capture becomes impossible, these 3D renderings remain the only visible traces of an experience that is, by nature, elusive.