It is an innovative festival which opened its doors on Wednesday June 9 in the heart of Paris: until Sunday June 13, creators from all over the world present works in virtual reality or in re ...

Africa innovating at the NewImages Festival in Paris

The NewImages Festival is held in Paris from June 9 to 13 at the Forum images in the 1st arrondissement of Paris.

Text by: Sophie Torlotin Follow

6 mins

It is an innovative festival which opened its doors on Wednesday June 9 in the heart of Paris: until Sunday June 13, creators from all over the world present works in virtual reality or in augmented reality.

And this year, in partnership with the “Africa 2020” season of the Institut français, the Forum des images honors African creators.

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Whether you put on a virtual reality headset to find yourself immersed in Dakar, whether you use an application on your smartphone to see a portrait of an ancestor come to life, or whether you discover the history of the pharaohs black people from Sudan projected under the Canopy of Les Halles, various African creations in the spotlight of

the NewImages Festival

use the full potential of new technologies to stage traditional tales or rites.

The Forum des images has even co-produced spectacular works, such as video mapping, the projection of images on the facade of Saint-Eustache church which will take place on Friday and Saturday.

A collective of South African artists reinterprets the traditional

Chosi Chosi

tale

using 2D and 3D animation.

In the eyes of the festival director, it is not surprising that the African continent is one of the most promising in terms of creations using this new means of expression which uses the tools of cinema, video games and the performing arts. .

“

We see that there is a relationship to the world different from that of the West

, analyzes Michael Swierczynski.

It is a world populated by ancestors, mythologies, strong rituals. You have works in selection, out of competition like

Atomu

, in which you can choose to be male or female and you can perceive spirits. One has the impression that by increasing the reality, you are inside African mythologies. Africa has the most stories to tell in immersive reality

: it connects past and present, science fiction and technology and mythology and tradition.

Attend a magical performance with the #videomapping on Saint-Eustache church!

✨

📆 Friday June 11 and Saturday June 12 at 10 p.m. - @Newimages_Paris #newimages

“Chosi Chosi” @Xabiso_Vili, Jason Stapleton, Elise Wessels, Inka Kendzia

👉 https://t.co/uxVls9nl8R pic.twitter.com/eri2YePZF7

- Forum des images (@forumdesimages) June 9, 2021

Virtual reality at the service of traditional tales

The 34-year-old Senegalese stylist and plastic artist Selly Raby Kane, member of the jury, agrees with this.

She discovered these new technologies in 2015. The young woman, who upset the codes and trends of Senegalese fashion, was selected by the South African company Electric south: “

The goal was to ensure that there have a maximum of hours of virtual reality that come from the continent.
There was a militant aspect for the continent to produce these works at the same time as the rest of the world as VR (virtual reality) storytelling was exploding.
I joined a group with other creatives from the continent.
And we spent ten days being trained in this new medium, working on software, scanning our bodies, putting ourselves in virtual environments.

Two years later, Selly Raby Kane directed an eight-minute film,

The Other Dakar

: she takes the viewer into a psychedelic world and the streets of the Senegalese capital, guided by a little girl for a virtual 360 ° walk.

“

What is interesting for us who come from Senegal, Kenya, Nigeria or South Africa is that art is also considered as a place of archives and transmission.
Using virtual reality to talk about mythology or to enter into tales, for us it is a way to address the young people of the continent, to prepare those who arrive, and it is a way of doing that is rooted in our cultures.

Transmission between generations

Using the most modern technologies to promote transmission between generations is also what underlies the augmented reality exhibition “Re / Member Your Descendants” by South African artists Xabiso Vili and Sonwabo Valashiya.

The poet and slammer Xabiso Vili conducted a series of interviews with compatriots.

Sonwaho Valashiya then painted very colorful portraits, which come alive when scanned with his smartphone.

Xabiso Vili seizes the possibilities offered by this medium to talk about spirituality: “

Augmented reality is exciting.
It allows those who express themselves, but also the spectators, to think about their spirituality and how they would like to be perceived in the future, how their descendants could see them and understand them.
It almost creates a new mythology, xhosa tales for new generations.
I believe these stories have the power to heal societies.

His friend, the painter Sonwabo Valashiya adds: “

We have the feeling of preserving our culture, our way of life.
We would like our descendants to remember their identity, to know where they come from.

"

Whether virtual, augmented or immersive, the African realities visible at the Forum des images intelligently combine past, present and future.

Africa innovating at the NewImages Festival in Paris

Africa innovating at the NewImages Festival in Paris

Virtual reality at the service of traditional tales

Transmission between generations

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