ESCAPISM 

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Escapism Main Image Landscape

With ESCAPISM, Oyoun opens a platform for an artistic and sociocritical experiment, connecting virtual and physical spaces. In an interactive exhibition at Oyoun Berlin from December 3 to 24, viewers can experience 4 hybrid game installations created by ESCAPISM artists: “tarare” by téa boyarchuk, “Thicker Than Blood Digital” by Izdihar Afyouni, “Guacuco” by Sol Martínez-Solé and "Embryonic Babies of Hot Winters" by Avita Maheen.

 

With ESCAPISM, a platform was created in Oyoun for an artistic and socially critical experiment that connects virtual and physical spaces. In an interactive exhibition from December 3rd to 24th, visitors to the Oyoun can experience four hybrid game installations created by the ESCAPISM artists: tarare by téa boyarchuk, Thicker Than Blood Digital by Izdihar Afyouni, Guacuco by Sol Martínez-Solé and Embryonic Babies of Hot Winters by Avita Maheen.

 

 

About ESCAPISM | About ESCAPISM

In a process of collective learning the four artists of ESCAPISM téa boyarchuk, Izdihar Afyouni, Sol Martínez-Solé and Avita Maheen developed their explorative visions into four hybrid games. They concretized their ideas in digital as well as physical spheres through exchanges, workshops and collaboration with fellow artists, programmers, technicians and mentors. The artists are based in different parts of the online and offline worlds and the largest part of the development and production process has been enabled through a remote, digital communication - which makes ESCAPISM hybrid and experimental in its essence.

The projects (re-) create personal and collective realities in which players

  • are required to explore memories and stories
  • will be unsettled by sensory and aesthetic stimulation
  • have to reflect on their standings within the current systems
  • must confront the social and state mechanism of oppression
  • are required to resist, deconstruct, liberate and heal.

The four projects engage themselves in the intersection of the intimate and the structural. They point to the colliding moments between realities and imaginations. The medium - a computer game played in an immersive physical environment - likewise manifests such intersection, where the individual players constitute the broader network of gamified experience of these art works. After a series of development phases that began in May 2021, ESCAPISM will launch as an immersive exhibition with four interactive games which will be online and offline on various platforms of Oyoun. Click here for the online games.

This project is funded by the Fonds Soziokultur from the program of the BKM “NEUSTART KULTUR”.

 

In a process of collective learning, the four artists téa boyarchuk, Izdihar Afyouni, Sol Martínez-Solé and Avita Maheen developed four hybrid games from their exploratory visions. They concretized their ideas on the digital and physical spheres in exchange with one another, in joint workshops and through collaboration with other artists, programmers, technicians and mentors. Since the artists are at home in different places in the online and offline world, a significant part of the development and production process was operated digitally - the history of ESCAPISM was already hybrid and experimental.

These four projects in game form present personal and collective realities in which the players are confronted with a range of tasks and challenges:

  • Explore memories and stories
  • Experience unsettling sensory and aesthetic stimuli
  • reflect on one's own position within the respective socio-political systems
  • deal with social / state mechanisms of oppression
  • Resist, deconstruct, liberate and heal.

The four projects move at the interface between the intimate and the structural. They refer to moments in which realities and imaginations collide. The medium - a computer game played in an immersive physical environment - also manifests such an overlap, with the individual players forming the expanded network of the gamified experience of these works of art.

After the development phase, which began in May 2021, ESCAPISM will open as an immersive exhibition with four interactive games that can be seen online and offline on various Oyoun platforms. Click here for online games.

This project is funded by the Socio-Culture Fund from the BKM “NEW START KULTUR” program.

 

Embryonic Babies of Hot Winters Concept Teaser Video | ESCAPISM

"Embryonic Babies of Hot Winters" questions a questionable past, present and foreseeable future. The project is characterized by storytelling and cinematic experiences and transcends that to both a gamified and a spatial cinematic experience.

 

video credits:
concept: arjunraj with Avita Maheen
shot & edited by: arjunraj (Oyoun)
creative direction: Madhumita Nandi (Oyoun)

 

Guacuco Concept Teaser | escapism

“Guacuco” is a short dream about returning to your home and making space for better things: “In this small seaside diorama I explore what it means to me to hold onto traumatic memories, and what it feels to re-visit and let go. It's a form of having a conversation with myself about my relationship with my gender, my ethnicity, and the way society has reacted to and shaped my history as I navigate it. ”- Sol Martínez-Solé, creater Guacaco

 

video credits:
concept: arjunraj with Sol Martínez-Solé Edited by: arjunraj (Oyoun)
Footage: Humberto Acevedo Narvaez 
Typeface: Mess By Tezzo Suzuki and Velvetyne Type Foundry
Background score: avyary
creative direction: Madhumita Nandi (Oyoun)

 

TARARE CONCEPT TEASER | ESCAPISM

'tarare' is a linear, narrative based game by téa boyarchuk that leads the audience through the destructive domains of colorism and texture. the prevalence and the fatalistic goal of attaining white beauty adjacency drives the narrator down the rabbit hole, asking the audience what the conditions are for true and earnest self-love.

 

video credits:
virtual world created by: tea boyarchuk
background score: samia ageli concept: arjunraj with tea boyarchuk
shot & edited by: arjunraj
creative direction: madhumita nandi

 

LIVING ARCHIVE BY SHANNON SEA NOVAA AND JUMỌKE

"Living Archive" is an audio, visual, and movement program by Shannon Sea Novaa and Jumọke.

"Our stories are sacred and should be documented and... their unique stories and ideas so that they can archive, curate and transmit their knowledge".

Shannon Sea Novaa and Jumọke presenting their audio, visual, and movement performances that incorporate sounds and movements from the audience to celebrate our existence in history.
The performances were part of the opening night of the launch of ESCAPISM at Oyoun.

 

About the artists and their projects | About the artists and their projects

Credits

Art Director: Madhumita Nandi (Oyoun)

Artistic Director Digital: Rachel Uwa

Curatorial Assistant: Dami Choi (Oyoun)

Conceptual development: Nina Martin (Oyoun)

Experts, Mentors and Collaborators: Lawrence Monroe Marable, Jeremy Diamond, Meredith Thomas, Rafia Shahnaz, Marie LeBlanc Flanagan, Kike Ayoola, gabbah baya, Helin Ulas, Alex Klepton, Raymond Jennings, Valentin Kellein, Amos Peled, Daniel del Río, Javier Calderón, avyary, Yuki Kojima, Carlos Serrano, Amos Peled, Etsuki Usui, Katerina Stanishlevikj, Jungwon Kim, Shannon Sea Novaa, Jumọke Adeyanju, Folly Ghost, Lesley Whitaker, Rory Seth Bernickow

Graphic designers: Rita Eperjesi

Oyoun team: Arjunraj, Linda Hamoui, Hatice Tahtali, Nicola Reißer, Louna Sbou, Nora Roho, Sophia Schmidt, Paul Räther, Stefan Krüger, Gregor Dühr, Andreas Kambrowski, Alejandro Pelzer, Mario Schwerdt, Khadija Alamin, Anette Heit, Leyla Discacciati, Tina Groneberg.