Dream-e-scape at the Film Criticism Conference, Riyadh, KSA

Film Criticism Conference - "Beyond the Frame" - Nov 8-15, 2023 - The Cultural Palace, DQ, Riyadh, KSA

Artist Talk: From Moving Images to Immersive Cinema - November 10, 2023 - 7:30pm - The Cultural Palace, DQ, Riyadh, KSA

Conceived and Directed by Laia Cabrera & Isabelle Duverger
Interactive Design by Aniol Saurina Masó and Jianhao Ma
Original music composition by Nana Simopoulos
Cinematography and Editing by Laia Cabrera & Isabelle Duverger

"Dream-e-scape" is an interactive projection art installation about lucid dreams, created by filmmaker Laia Cabrera and multimedia artist Isabelle Duverger, in collaboration with interactive designer Aniol Saurina Masó and Jianhao Ma, and composer and instrumentalist Nana Simopoulos.

The piece is an immersive and interactive 360º installation about the mind and the search for awareness in which the public experiences a sensory voyage that captures the surreal nature of dreams, where the line is blurred between the physical and the digital world, between the real and the imaginary.

“Dream-e-scape” is based on the state of sleep, an imaginary journey one can experience with the eyes wide open. The piece explores the concept of lucid dreaming, the sleep state in which we become aware we are dreaming and have the ability to control the dream and gain agency over our thoughts and desires. We are testing reality: Are we awake?

We wanted to play with the surreal nature of dreams and explore concepts and ideas related to our notion of a digital self in a collective environment. Being awake, conscious… agency. The installation uses the language of escape rooms to explore the dreamworld, opening doors to mirrored landscapes, waterfalls, a Daliesque world or hidden pathways, creating connection between allegories of tales, micro and macro, nature, body, mind and universe, all connected by chance and sometimes astonishing clarity. Dreams are the starting point of the imagination. The original score takes you to interactive soundscapes created specifically for the piece.

Using cutting-edge multimedia technology to produce creative environments, through mapping, infinite space, augmented reality, interactivity, video art, music and animation, the audience is invited to actively participate as actors and not just as mere spectators. The video installation art becomes a theatrical stage where things appear, move across, and then disappear, where awareness becomes attention and action, and your brain fantasizes your conscious reality. Original music uses textures, pads, pulses and drum rhythms to move the audience through the space and at times influence the music by their physical movement.

Conceived as a seamless projection mapping design with full gesture responsive interactivity, “Dream-e-escape” invites the audience to actively enter the heart of the piece creating and choosing dreamlands that unfold across a series of immersive interactive scenarios, capturing the surreal nature of dreams and giving the audience agency. Dream-e-scape plays as a fictional dimension, whose terrain of forests, cities, galaxies, mountains, and an underworld can be visited only through a process of thinking creatively, Lucid dreaming.








OTHER VENUES
Flutter Art Gallery - 2022-2023 - Los Angeles
Microwave Media Arts Festival - Oct 28, 2022 - Nov 6, 2022 - Hong Kong City Hall

AWARDS: #Hybrid Vision - Panasonic Digital Art Competition 2022 - Interactive Digital Art Nominee

QUALIA - You Matter to Me, 2023

An Immersive Cinematic Art Installation directed by Laia Cabrera & Isabelle Duverger
Music and Sound design by Nana Simopoulos and Erica Glyn | Performing artist: Catherine Correa

Qualia: the properties of experience, and experiences, referred to as being phenomenally conscious

"Qualia" is an immersive video and sound installation about our longing for connection to nature,
through consciousness, awareness, and agency.

Presented at: 

Jersey City Theater Center October 13-15, 2023
as part of JCAST 2023 and Prelude Festival 2023 - Segal Center CUNY
October 13 6-9pm, the 14th & 15th 12-6pm

165 Newark Avenue (entrance on Barrow), Jersey City, NJ

 

Sant Jordi USA Festival, April 25, 2024, Out of the Box Theatrics, New York 

Women Heavy Group Exhibition, Gardenship, Kearny, NJ - May 18-July 27, 2024, curated by Donna Kessinger

Newark Arts Festival 2024 - Newark ArtSpace, 355 Broad Street, Newark, NJ - October 10-December 1, 2024

“Qualia” is a sensory voyage where the line is blurred between the physical and the digital world, between the real and the imaginary. The gaze is a visual poem, gravitational Qualia: anxiety shaped into Surrealism, mythology, a nightmare turned fantasy, spontaneous solidarity, feelings of solitude, suspension, an embrace, the beginning of a smile, a hand falling and rising again, time and the fates.

Conceived as an immersive projection mapping design using cinematographic language and interactive dramaturgy, “Qualia” explores concepts of mental states, symbolism, and hope, creating a story that unfolds across a series of immersive scenarios drawing from the body, faces, urban patterns, nature and remains of activity. Underneath these mirrored imageries lie many stories about limits, freedom and self-perception.

An ordinary tableau becomes a dreamscape, the brain is an airport, a train rail. The mind is a magician, the body is the self, giving audience an alternative experience where they are no longer passive spectators and actively enter the very heart of the piece where ‘universal time’ continues to exist in parallel with an inner perception of time — a back door — intimately associated with our sense of personal identity and unshakable condition that the future is still open to our chosen actions.

The brain is an alchemist where memories are the bedrock of consciousness.

The piece uses choreographic language, fragmentation, bioart, color, motion, music, drama, humor, light and darkness to confound expectations, dream-like scenes and symbolic images, flattening space through animation and abstraction, or heightening the illusion of three dimensions.

The immersive experience - environmental video sculpture - is designed as a large wall with white canvases spread across, seemingly in random positions creating video spaces. Using the concept of ideasthesia, a bridge that metaphorically links rational abstractions, we open a dialogue between the different film streams - within the canvases and throughout the wall - with an original music score and sound design, extending the installation in time and space.

With the support of the Individual Artist Fellowship program provided by the Jersey City Arts Council and the Jersey City Arts & Culture Trust Fund, and the Jersey City Theater Center. Produced by Laia Cabrera & Co.

SLIMEY MIRROR - Sloomoo Institute - New York, Chicago, Atlanta

Created by Laia Cabrera and Isabelle Duverger
Interactive Design by Jianhao Ma and Aniol Saurina Masó
3D Design by Lucas Ordoñez
Music by Pei Pei Music

Sloomoo Institute, 475 Broadway, SoHo, New York, NY 10013, Starting September 22, 2022
Opening November 19, 2022 in Chicago and Atlanta
Opening December 7, 2023 in Houston
Opening September 7, 2024 in Los Angeles

Slimey Mirror is an immersive interactive installation which reflect on the self, our identity, and how do we relate to our inner child, when exposed to a different environment where one can see an image of themselves but not quite themselves.
When entering, the interactivity allows for people to see their self as an avatar of slime, responding to one's movement in a mirrored manner, and at the same time responding to the laws of motion of slime. The environment is a cave also made of slime, and it can interact with people by spilling slime of different textures. When prompted by a ball of slime, people can also throw slime at the mirror and at one another.
The experience of reflecting oneself onto a mirror is always a learning experience, here we want people to free themselves from their self-reflection and discover the possibilities of being in a slime body.
The installation works with a full body tracking sensor, and therefor allows to move freely in the space without having to wear any technology. We are looking to create an experience in which people can instinctively interact, with technology invisible.

Dream-e-scape at Microwave Media Art Festival, Hong Kong

An Immersive Interactive Cinematic Art Installation by Laia Cabrera and Isabelle Duverger

"Blend make-believe with reality in “Dream-e-scape,” by Laia Cabrera & Isabelle Duverger. A room that manages to feel intimate and limitless at the same time.

As the walls shift into countless scenes ranging from the familiar (a tranquil coral reef) to the fantastical (a vortex of swirling cosmos), you’ll feel like you’ve tumbled down the rabbit hole into Wonderland.

Your every movement and action in Dream-e-scape will unlock different scenarios and dreams.

Keep your eyes wide open as you make the art come alive!"

— Secret Los Angeles, June 29, 2022

Flutter Experience Art Gallery, 217 S La Brea, Los Angeles, CA - 2022-2023
Dream-e-scape at Microwave Media Arts Festival - Oct 28, 2022 - Nov 6, 2022 - Hong Kong City Hall
#Hybrid Vision - Panasonic Digital Art Competition 2022 - Interactive Digital Art Nominee

"Dream-e-scape" is an interactive projection art installation about lucid dreams, created by filmmaker Laia Cabrera and multimedia artist Isabelle Duverger, in collaboration with interactive designer Aniol Saurina Masó and composer and instrumentalist Nana Simopoulos.

The piece is an immersive and interactive 360º installation about the mind and the search for awareness in which the public experiences a sensory voyage that captures the surreal nature of dreams, where the line is blurred between the physical and the digital world, between the real and the imaginary.

“Dream-e-scape” is based on the state of sleep, an imaginary journey one can experience with the eyes wide open. The piece explores the concept of Lucid Dream, the state in which we are asleep and become aware we are dreaming, and the ability we have to control the dreams, the agency we have over our thoughts and desires. We are testing reality, are we awake?

Conceived and Directed by Laia Cabrera and Isabelle Duverger
Interactive Design by Aniol Saurina Masó
Original music composition by Nana Simopoulos
Cinematography and Editing by Laia Cabrera and Isabelle Duverger

Close-Up / Primer Pla immersive video and sound installation

Directed by Laia Cabrera in collaboration with Isabelle Duverger

Conceived and created by Laia Cabrera & Isabelle Duverger
Original music by Nana Simopoulos and Enrique Granados
Cinematography and Editing by Laia Cabrera & Isabelle Duverger

"In a world in which one is tempted to forget or ignore too much, the reconquest of our collective past should be among our first projects for our future.” Umberto Eco
Close-Up/Primer Pla: An Immersive Cinematic Art Installation is a poem to Catalan landscape and architecture, a visual tone poem that uncovers new parallels between identifiable motifs of the land and the built environment, between nature and art. The tale it weaves navigates between gentle familiar territory and sudden, revelatory estrangement, spanning both distant memory and nostalgia for what is yet to come.
Conceived as a visual narrative memoir, looking back and looking forward, a filmic poem of future nostalgia and selective memory. Capturing the instant, going back to the origin, a memory in act. The piece departs from three major themes for the visual storytelling: Place + People + Values.
Unveiling a sensorial “viatge” as a “spiral”, we created an oneiric journey merging and juxtaposing the essence of these thematic concepts as a triptych video installation. With a cinematic style, using mathematic patterns in nature like spiral, fractals, voronoi, the symbolic tradition of Castells, the textures and shapes of modern architectural landscapes of Catalunya; a visual storytelling materializing thoughts, allegories, scenic metaphors and imaginary skylines. Our focus was also on the rituals of togetherness and solidarity, images of embrace and openness of a community.
The gaze is on the details, the poetry, the beauty of the senses and the longing for an inclusive and sustainable future. A path forward – unveiled through collective traditions and multiculturalism.

Presented at:
Delegation of the Government of Catalonia to the United States, Washington DC, September 14, 2021
White Space Gallery Chelsea - New York, NY - November 15-16, 2021
Coral Gables Museum, Miamia, FL - November 17, 2021
Sant Jordi USA festival - Jersey City Theater Center, NJ - April 21-24, 2022
The Dumbo Loft - Brooklyn, NY - September 20, 2022

Commissioned by the Delegation of the Government of Catalonia to the United States. Presented with the support of Office of Turism of Catalonia and Prodeca Produced by Laia Cabrera & Co.

Dream-e-scape: An eye-opening journey into the sleep state - Los Angeles, 2022-2023

“Every act of imagination points implicitly to the dream… the dream is the first condition of its possibility.”— Michel Foucault

IMMERSIVE INTERACTIVE FILM AND SOUND INSTALLATION
FLUTTER EXPERIENTIAL GALLERY - 217 S La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, CA

Conceived and Directed by Laia Cabrera & Isabelle Duverger
Interactive Design by Aniol Saurina Masó
Original music composition by Nana Simopoulos
Cinematography and Editing by Laia Cabrera & Isabelle Duverger

View on Website: laiacabreraco.com/dream-e-scape

"Dream-e-scape" is an interactive projection art installation about lucid dreams, created by filmmaker Laia Cabrera and multimedia artist Isabelle Duverger, in collaboration with interactive designer Aniol Saurina Masó and composer and instrumentalist Nana Simopoulos. 
The piece is an immersive and interactive 360º installation about the mind and the search for awareness in which the public experiences a sensory voyage that captures the surreal nature of dreams, where the line is blurred between the physical and the digital world, between the real and the imaginary.
“Dream-e-scape” is based on the state of sleep, an imaginary journey one can experience with the eyes wide open. The piece explores the concept of Lucid Dream, the state in which we are asleep and become aware we are dreaming, and the ability we have to control the dreams, the agency we have over our thoughts and desires. We are testing reality, are we awake?
We wanted to play with the surreal nature of dreams and explore concepts and ideas related to our notion of a digital self in a collective environment. Being awake, conscious… agency. The installation uses the language of escape rooms to explore the dreamworld, opening doors to mirrored landscapes, waterfalls, a Daliesque world or hidden pathways, creating connection between allegories of tales, micro and macro, nature, body, mind and universe, all connected by chance and sometimes astonishing clarity. Dreams are the starting point of the imagination. The original score takes you to interactive soundscapes created specifically for the piece.
Using cutting-edge multimedia technology to produce creative environments, through mapping, infinite space, augmented reality, interactivity, video art, music and animation, the audience is invited to actively participate as actors and not just as mere spectators. The video installation art becomes a theatrical stage where things appear, move across, and then disappear, where awareness becomes attention and action, and your brain fantasizes your conscious reality. Original music uses textures, pads, pulses and drum rhythms to move the audience through the space and at times influence the music by their physical movement.
Conceived as a seamless projection mapping design with full gesture responsive interactivity, “Dream-e-escape” invites the audience to actively enter the heart of the piece creating and choosing dreamlands that unfold across a series of immersive interactive scenarios, capturing the surreal nature of dreams and giving the audience agency.

Bio:
Laia Cabrera and Isabelle Duverger (Laia Cabrera & Co.) are award-winning video artists searching for innovative ways of using the space and visual imaginary as a tool for narrative storytelling and audience connection, driven by both scenographic and dramaturgical aspects and creating immersive content experiences in contemporary artwork. They work in the field of interactive video art installations, creating a wide range of artworks presented worldwide in leading venues, art galleries and festivals. For this piece, they collaborated with interactive designer Aniol Saurina-Masó and composer Nana Simopoulos.
www.laiacabreraco.com

  

"Illusion" Immersive Interactive Cinematic Art Installation, Flutter Experience, Los Angeles - 2019

What is real? What is imaginary? Is the distinction just in our mind?
“Illusion” is an immersive interactive installation about the art of seeing and experiencing, that offers the chance to step into an illusion of infinite space.

Illusion - An Immersive Interactive Cinematic Art Installation created by Laia Cabrera and Isabelle Duverger
Interactivity by Aniol Saurina Masó | Music and Sound design by Nana Simopoulos with Mary Ann McSweeney
Flutter Experience, 217 S La Brea, Los Angeles, CA - June 1 to December 1, 2019

The piece departs from the notion of “visual illusions”, a powerful means by which to challenge our mind and the inner and subjective approach to time and space. Through projection mapping, mirrors, augmented reality, interactivity, video art, music and animation, we invite our audience to experience a sensorial journey onto magical realms and thought-provoking realities. “Illusion” is a mirage, a playful art installation that blurs the line between true and false, merging the physical and digital worlds.

In “Illusion”, we are creating a sense of proximity with elements we are used to be surrounded by, contrasting with how differently we relate to them. We are awakening the senses as the audience plays with fire, water, energy, switching viewpoint from being inside to being above, transitioning to breaking walls (symbolically and literally), opening doors to unexpected landscapes, from the universe to the infinitesimal and interacting at all time with them. "Illusion" is an experiential art installation where mirrors also play the role of breaking the rules of gravity.

In this infinity mirrored room, one can travel from an animated urban landscape, breaking walls to unleash the beauty and power of nature, sea waves, forest and fireflies, a peaceful escape room to aerial views of the Mediterranean coast, paint and ink creating abstract forms that evoke the connection between micro and macro, neons that react to your movements creating shapes, and words that remind us about the meaning of illusion, a mirage but also a trill and hope.

More info: laiacabreraco.com/illusion

"Outer and Inner space in Illusion. Don't miss such amazing artists as Laia Cabrera, Isabelle Duverger & Aniol Saurina Maso in Illusion..." - Ivan Mena Tinoco, film director and producer

"Digital media duo Laia Cabrera and Isabelle Duverger offer Illusion, a space flooded with projections and mapping systems, carving shadows in bubbly or fire patterns that move in sync with the viewer. “We think it’s important to bring storytelling to the art world and make it more attractive and try to have a journey,” says Cabrera who, with Duverger, was behind similar interactive projections at New York’s Armory Week as well as a 72 foot long installation on the windows of the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Times Square last fall." - Jordan Riefe, Art & Object, June 10, 2019



"Completely in awe by the smart and sensitive interactive piece that they have created, where beauty and high end technology meet to offer a live interactive inspiring joyful experience. If you are in LA, you really have to come and experience this piece along with the other art installations at the impressive Flutter Experience Space meticulously curated by Christopher Dowson and Karen Robinovitz." - Nacho Arimany, musician and performer



"L’interaction et l’immersivité au service de l’illusion d’optique. On pourrait résumer ainsi Illusion, l’installation conçue par Laia Cabrera et Isabelle Duverger, cinéastes et artistes plasticiennes. Combinant différentes techniques (mapping, miroir, réalité augmentée, vidéo, musique, animation), leur dispositif est une expérience limite, entre voyage sensoriel et labyrinthe numérique, où le public est invité à se perdre et à jouer « activement » dans un maelstrom de formes, de couleurs et de sons." - Laurent Diouf, MCD Magazine des Cultures Digitales, June 5, 2019



"Dear LA friends, if you wanna check out something really cool that will be there for the next 6 months, I highly suggest checking out "Illusion" an immersive cinematic art installation by award winning filmmakers and visual artists Laia Cabrera and Isabelle Duverger" - Cheryl Guerriero, writer



ABOUT FLUTTER - “WHERE ART AND HAPPINESS MEET”
Opening June 1st on South La Brea, Los Angeles, FLUTTER is an innovative, immersive art experience, designed for anyone in search of being in an environment that evokes pure happiness and joy. FLUTTER is the first of its kind; a sensory journey spanning multiple mediums, where visitors are able to touch and experience the art which includes Virtual Reality, projection mapping, climbable furniture as well as a giant sphinx, day-glow lighting and architectural structures.
FLUTTER is a ticketed exhibition suitable for visitors of all ages, FLUTTER’s mission is to bring contemporary fine art into everyday life in a way that is interactive, encouraging community and creativity. The inaugural installation includes artists: digital media duo Laia Cabrera and Isabelle Duverger (in collaboration with Aniol Saurina Masó), Katie Stout, Jacolby Satterwhite, Jillian Mayer, Saya Woolfalk, Leah Guadagnoli, Cyril Lancelin of Town & Concrete, Liz Collins, Elise Peterson, Candy Chang, Guillermo Santoma as well as Job Piston in collaboration with the award-winning architecture studio, Charlap Hyman and Herrero along with NAR.
Billed as a “sensory journey” open to visitors of all ages, the inaugural edition is themed “the play-date.” Karen Robinovitz, the chief curator of “Flutter,” who’s a board member of the Bronx Museum of the Arts and the Brooklyn Museum in New York, said in a statement, “Everything in the world can be so heavy and serious that our focus was reprieve, fun, and playfulness.” Chris Dowson, the founder of the exhibition, added, “Flutter’s purpose is to bring fine art to everyone. We invite you to participate, experience, interact, and share, in a fun, welcoming environment. We want to promote and encourage enjoyment and connection to others through community and will be announcing several education programs throughout the year.”

Get tickets here: https://flutterexperience.com/