Xavier Veilhan: Sculpture Park

Multidisciplinary artist Xavier Veilhan debuts his first virtual reality artwork Sculpture Park in his solo exhibition at Perrotin Shanghai, opening 15 March 2024. Commissioned by VIVE Arts and developed by award-winning production company Atlas V, the VR experience includes a collaborative soundscape by renowned French DJ and musician I:Cube, inviting viewers on a mesmerizing exploration of form, space, and artistic evolution.

Sculpture Park reveals a series of interconnected spaces, each with its own distinct ambiance. Titled “Island of Dogs,” “Island of Tom,” “La Cité Radieuse,” “The Light Machine,” and “The Forest,” these spaces cumulatively enable Veilhan's entire artistic journey to unfold within this digital domain, illuminated by intricate plays of light and colour. The work is characterized by visual distortion and abstraction with the boundary between representation and abstraction continually blurred.

Upon entering this ethereal world, viewers will find themselves immersed in a predominantly white landscape adorned with a multitude of Veilhan’s sculptures rendered in digital form. As a participant in this 6DOF (Six Degrees of Freedom) experience, viewers can choose different modes of engagement in the experience, oscillating between a guided mode and an active mode, where the users can freely roam through the environment.

Through this immersive experience, Veilhan aims to create a space where viewers can engage in a slow and contemplative exploration, akin to a dreamlike state. It is a means of achieving a multidimensional experience that merges the boundaries between reality and fiction, a space that exists as a subdivision of reality, escaping its confines.

VIVE Arts’ commission of Xavier Veilhan’s work in partnership with Perrotin advances its mission to support the entirety of the digital art ecosystem, enabling galleries as well as institutions to experiment with nascent technologies, and empowering artists to use new mediums and technologies to push their practices beyond traditional boundaries.

Sculpture Park will be shown on Fridays 12pm-7pm and Saturdays 11am-7pm throughout the run of the exhibition at Perrotin Shanghai.