Venice Immersive Offers Space for VR and Other New Media Artists to Grow and Expand on Technology

variety.com:

Ben Croll Now marking its eighth edition, Venice Immersive remains the greater Biennale family’s perpetual enfant terrible.

That status has little to do with industry esteem — unfurling on its own dedicated island, the new media spotlight has become a can’t miss rendezvous every bit as prestigious as the parent film festival — and everything to do with a protean medium that stays perpetually unfixed. “[These artists] are creating a totally new language,” said Venice Immersive co-curator Michel Reilhac. “They’re making the invisible now visible, finding a new way to express emotions that isn’t as literal or as limited as in other artforms.” The immersive form is liable to change on a whim, buoyed by a steady influx of established artists eager for a new challenge, and jolted by an unsteady market that has yet to find a scalable distribution model.

While deep-pocketed patrons like Meta and HTC come and go, leading to boom and bust cycles on a tech-accelerated timeline, Venice Immersive has set down roots, using wider institutional support to foster a stable of creators who return to Venice year after year.

What’s more, said promise of safe haven and stability has, in turn, helped the overall artform advance. “We now see VR entering a more mature stage of development,” said Reilhac. “Works from this year’s selection no longer try to display technological bravery or virtuosity, but truly use the technology to tell incredibly moving stories that really trigger emotional and spiritual connections.