IMMERSE! : A Proto-Curatorial Concept

As the opposition between illusion and reality dissolves and the boundaries between the world we inhabit and its virtual dimensions blur, Immerse! examines how computer-generated public spaces shape our current political and social discourses. What is the potential of virtual reality within the art field, when concepts such as presence and absence, material and immaterial are beginning to lose their validity?Realized as part of the international research project Beyond Matter that explores the shift in the production and mediation of visual art within institutional frameworks. Exhibition spaces are physical locations of knowledge production and exchange, where spatial qualities play an important role in the contextualization of information. One of the goals of the project is to develop virtual productions that maintain these sensual qualities, but add layers of digitized and born-digital content to defy transience and the dependency on geographical locations, and create entirely new immersive experiences. The catalogue offers the reflections on the theme by curators Corina L. Apostol and Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás as well as 19 visual essays by trailblazing artists and four in-depth theoretical texts by Helen Kaplinsky, Matthew Fuller, Lukáš Likavcan, Zsolt Miklósvölgyi and Márió Z. Nemes that explore the concept of immersion.