The Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain serves as a space where new forms of artistic creation are fostered in a country that may be small in size, but is particularly dynamic in terms of exploring innovative narratives. Immersive art is one of the key areas explored by Casino Luxembourg and its artistic director, Kevin Muhlen.

Casino Luxembourg, 25 years of exhibitions

Kevin Muhlen – Established in 1996, the Casino Luxembourg is a contemporary art centre founded in 1996, arising from a year of exhibitions held in Luxembourg, the European Capital of Culture the previous year. Like other venues dedicated to contemporary art, we focus on temporary exhibitions, with no particular collections or any heritage purpose. We have two aims: to welcome and present artists and their work, and to contribute to discussions about the place of contemporary art and other art forms (visual, plastic, digital, etc.). We also offer a space for artistic research, as art schools can do.

Kevin Muhlen – Over the past 25 years, the forms of artistic expression have undergone significant change. We’ve had to keep up with these shifts, working closely with artists and promoting their projects. It’s in this context that we’ve been able to get to grips with new technologies, and in particular immersive art. Generally speaking, digital technology has always been part of our DNA. There’s a potential here that interests us, possibilities that artists want to explore, and a whole range of innovative works that obviously arouse the public’s curiosity. In this way, Casino Luxembourg is helping to support an artistic sector in the making, just like many other institutions that are passionate about these issues.

What place does XR have in modern artistic creation?

Kevin Muhlen – A few years ago, everyone had a genuine fascination with virtual reality. We wanted to explore the artistic aspect of these new mediums and connect with young artists. We dedicated a space to virtual reality, striving to provide a true platform for these new creations, reaching out to the Luxembourg Film Fund to inquire about existing projects, and more. However, this led us to a dead end because we were mistakenly prioritising the technology! We had created our own limits, which meant we couldn’t welcome all the works. Ultimately, we didn’t want our programme to be dictated by technology.

Although the spectacular side of the medium may have pushed the artistic aspect into the background, VR should now be approached through the prism of the senses. A new horizon…

Kevin Muhlen – It was by freeing ourselves from this technological framework, by forgetting about devices and focusing on the works, that we started to feel we had more possibilities in terms of inserting immersive experiences into Casino Luxembourg. We became clearer with our intentions, working with artists we were familiar with, such as Rachel Maclean and her early experiments in virtual reality that perfectly reflect her artistic practice; Rachel Rossin and her highly pictorial approach as a new media artist; but also Eva L’Hoest, Karolina Markiewicz & Pascal Piron… Thanks to some of them, we gained a better understanding of the growing XR ecosystem, the events and festivals, the challenges involved, and identified new issues. We integrated them to ensure that Casino Luxembourg could provide the best possible reception for these new artists.

How do you incorporate these emerging forms of creation into your programme? 

Kevin Muhlen – The immersive art scene is now well-established. If in 2023, we are presenting projects like Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s ENDODROME, it is to show a mature artwork that reflects on the challenges of VR and its integration within a broader artistic context. I am very much interested in new developments, including those in educational institutions, and I am very curious about new approaches to these emerging technologies. Indeed, immersive art, in general, is a creative movement that fully embraces itself, with a true democratisation of tools, in particular. VR is becoming accessible for young artists, including those who are already well-known.

Kevin Muhlen – On the logistical and technical side, things have evolved significantly. It is now easy to accommodate artists and their immersive setups, regardless of the medium they use. Nevertheless, our team can still be highly solicited for art-mediation and equipment updates as they manage the entirety of the exhibitions. There is still room for improvement in the daily presentation aspects, with considerations for distribution methods (such as an ‘autostart’ function for VR films…). However, with each exhibition, we witness progress, and every effort is made to ensure optimal comfort for the audience.

Endodrome is the first virtual reality artwork by artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. Officially selected as part of the main exhibition at the 58th Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition “May You Live in Interesting Times”, the title of this experiment is derived from the Greek words endon, meaning “inside”, and dromos, meaning “race” or “racetrack”. Endodrome explores notions of space, alternative states of consciousness and interiority. The experience can be enjoyed by five people at a time, via a theatrical device that suggests the experience of a seance, incorporating sound, light and projections of the visions that spectators experience in VR headsets.(more info)

How should we present these works to the public?

Kevin Muhlen – Presentating VR artworks needs to be tailored specifically to the venue and situation. The settings differ between festivals and traditional exhibitions. I hope to showcase other formats such as augmented reality, although I haven’t come across anything suitable for our programme yet. I don’t want to succumb to trends at the expense of the audience’s reception and viewing conditions. That’s why we now select our works with these criteria in mind.

Kevin Muhlen – The immersive art industry is progressing rapidly, and I have no concerns that we will quickly move beyond the technical aspects to focus on the artworks themselves. There is a strong interest from the public in seeking novelty, and that is what matters. Our role is also to moderate these discoveries, so as not to disappoint. Technological prowess is often synonymous with spectacle, but contemporary art is more sensitive than that and doesn’t necessarily choose the most astonishing elements of these immersive experiences. There are authorial choices being made that create genuine artistic objects, and it is important to guide these choices.

Kevin Muhlen – Fortunately, we are also seeing the public become much more familiar with these virtual environments.  Virtual reality is a medium that touches on intimacy, on our perception of the world around us. In the end, it’s a fairly personal relationship to artistic creation that’s going to emerge, with an inevitably subjective viewpoint at the end of the day.

How can we manage the distribution of these works? 

Kevin Muhlen – The immersive art scene is still relatively young, and the distribution network for modern art remains in its infancy. However, venues like the PHI Centre in Montreal have established themselves, even though each one maintains a distinct perspective and had its own programme. It is essential for us to work on the complementarity between cultural spaces in order to best support creators within the targeted industries. Establishing a connection between an artistic work and the use of new technologies, finding meaning in each sensitive approach, and being able to place it within the current of contemporary art – this is somewhat our philosophy at Casino Luxembourg.