ART*VR: Circles of Intimacy

Immersive exhibition of nine XR projects exploring shifting forms of intimacy: from sexuality, desire, and our relationship with our own bodies to friendship, family, and the places and communities that shape our sense of belonging.

How does intimacy arise, where does it begin, and where does it end? It flows between bodies, memories, places, and relationships; sometimes taking the form of touch, sexual desire or fantasy, at other times being a safe space, a familiar street, or the feeling of belonging somewhere. Circles of Intimacy traces these shifting forms of closeness: erotic and platonic, familial and communal, bodily and spatial — and the places where the boundaries of these circles begin to overlap.

The idea of postdigital intimacy is based on the understanding that it no longer makes much sense to separate physical closeness from digital intimacy. A phone message can reshape a physical relationship, an algorithm can enter our imaginaries of desire, AI can co-create a sexual fantasy, and a virtual body can affect how we perceive our own. The digital environment permeates the physical one.

The nine projects in this section invite you to put on a headset, briefly separate yourself from the people around you, and move closer to someone else. You will enter other people’s sexual fantasies, find yourself within touching distance of erotic encounters, return to the earliest intimacy of the womb, or discover the places and communities which form a sense of belonging. Technology does not stand between us and intimacy. It becomes part of it: a space through which closeness is created, tested, and sometimes disrupted.

The thematic exhibition Circles of Intimacy is part of the ART∗VR Festival. Details about the specific projects included can be found on the festival website.