French and Singaporean artists, choreographers, and producers embraced the performing arts, contemporary dance, virtual reality, digital painting, and music to present an innovative interdisciplinary work for the Voilah! France Singapore Festival 2019. The mixed-reality performances were 2 hours long and held at the Miaja Gallery on the 8th and 9th of November 2019.
The show was produced in partnership with the Embassy of France in Singapore, Miaja Gallery, InnerspaceVR, and Decadanceco.
Fourth Wall: Duets featured three intertwined duet performances complemented by free-flowing French wines. The show broke the conventional 'fourth wall', where the roles of performers and audience blurred to create an evocative experience for the eyes, ears, palate, and soul.
Nina Boldyreva, Art Director of the show said, “This is a landmark collaboration between Asian and Western, classical and contemporary, real and virtual worlds, different art forms and multidimensional visions. It is a great honour to be invited by the French Embassy to demonstrate how the expressive and experiential potential of virtual reality can provide more emotional responses than films, theatre or concert”.
The programme encompassed an award-winning musical experience in virtual reality with a duet ballet performance revolving around the love story of French sculptor Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel. The guests were able to view this virtual musical performance by wearing the VR headset.
Inspired by the interactive VR experience, Edwin Wee and Rachel Lum, a duet of Singaporean contemporary choreographers from Decadanceco, reimagined the narrative and transcended it on the stage.
To ensue the trifecta, French performing artist, Andrée Weschler and Singaporean digital artist, Zenith Chan unveiled their collaborative adventure, mesmerising the audience with a performance on the stage and created a live painting in VR which captured the essence of French and Singaporean cultures.
Lastly, a surprise performance which marked the fourth duet unfolded through the gallery. It was performed by Edwin Wee and Rachel Lum along with four other dancers.
“To have the essence of physicality in dance, to weave through time, space and cultures, with the help of technology, and to present all of those facets on one stage,” explained Edwin Wee, co-founder of Decadanceco. "It was truly a magnificent embarkation, where we are most certain of the endless discoveries we made, and a truly immersive show we presented,” he added.
Fantasium Group creates and provides a wide range of mixed-media and mixed reality events for arts and entertainment.