Unframed Collection partners with NUMIX Lab, an itinerant European event that brings together immersive creation professionals in dialogue with cultural institutions across the continent. The 6th edition in 2025 brought together 459 participants from around the world across 16 venues in Budapest, Veszprém, Vienna, and Linz, fostering exchanges between Europe and North America around immersive cultural practices.
On this occasion we met with Rémi Large, co-founder of Tamanoir, a studio at the crossroads of performing arts and new technologies. For several years, Tamanoir has produced works placing the audience at the heart of the experience while collaborating with cultural institutions such as the Paris Opera, theFrench National Monuments Centre or the CENTQUATRE-PARIS, as well as venues worldwide. Through pieces interweaving scenography, interaction, video and performing arts, the collective interrogates the audience’s place, the different ways it can participate and the evolving use of technology in the performing arts.
In this interview, Rémi Large revisits various contemporary understandings of immersion, the possibilities offered by the use of digital technologies in performing arts, as well as the challenges of democratization and works’ circulation faced by the sector.
“What intrigues us is the way in which someone can connect physically and emotionally with a narrative. […] Technologies allow the invention of new ways to relate to space, storytelling and participation. They’re tools in service of sensorial experiences.”
— Rémi Large
Tamanoir creates experiences at the crossroads of performing arts and new technologies. How would you define your approach to it?
Rémi Large – We’re looking, first and foremost, to make the audience an active participant in the performance. Our starting point remains the performing arts: the scene, the relation to the body and its presence, to the collective. Then, new technologies are used to enhance those relations.
We do not create experiences based solely on technology, but from a particular relationship with the audience, a desire to involve the spectator in a specific way.
What intrigues us is the ways in which someone can connect physically and emotionally with a narrative. We’re trying to move away from a passive audience looking in on an action from the outside.
Technologies allow the invention of new ways to relate to space, storytelling and participation. They’re tools in service of sensorial experiences.
Could you give us examples of some of your experiences that make use of digital technologies?
R. L. – We started with virtual reality before moving away from it. We felt that it caused a desynchronisation between mind and body, which was a problem as we’re still firmly anchored in performing arts. Currently, we’re working with audio immersion.
In 2022, we created Les Naufragés (The Stranded), an immersive experience that invites spectators to take an active role in the performance. Equipped with a headset, the audience members follow the narration that encourages them to make gestures, first simple, then increasingly abstract and symbolic.Together, they gradually create a collective choreography that we amplify through interactive video projection. What we were trying to accomplish was to make them truly feel what it is like to stand on stage and take part in a performance, the digital technology is used to support this theatrical intent.
What role can digital media play in performing arts’ evolution?
R. L. – There’s obviously a creative issue. Digital technologies can open new sensory and narrative possibilities but they can never become a goal in and of themselves. What interests us is their use in the creation of new ways to relate to the public, to inhabit a space or a narrative.
We’re also considering ways in which it could be used to distribute immersive theatre. One of the form’s limitations is its audience size, usually between 80 and 100 people. We’re exploring the possibility to broadcast some experiences online through Twitch, as part of a partnership with Arte.
What are the main challenges faced by immersive creators, at the moment?
R. L. – The first one is democratisation and audience education. In France, the term “immersive theatre” is still relatively unknown. When we speak of immersion, the public imagination is still strongly associated with new technologies. However, we have a different approach, we’re working with dramatic storytelling before making use of the tools that are most relevant to the intent, which can sometimes involve the digital technologies. This specificity makes our positioning rather complex.
Conversely, in the United-Kingdom immersion is way more associated with performing arts and immersive theatre than with new technologies. In France, a sort of ecosystem has formed around innovative technologies which sometimes puts us in a peculiar position. One of our main challenges is to make our approach to immersion clear so that the audience can fully understand and engage with the experiences.
What feedback did you receive from audiences throughout your various experiments?
R. L. – While we were still working with virtual reality we did numerous audience tests to see what would work. A recurring reaction was that the audience members found the experience impressive. It was often the first adjective employed. However, beyond this initial fascination, there was little emotional impact at the end of the day. That was what we missed the most.
When we performed our first audio experience, Les Naufragés, the contrast was immediate. From the first tests on we barely needed questionnaires to understand what was happening: some of our audience left the experience with tears in their eyes.
It provoked a deeper, more intimate reaction. Some came back to see me several weeks later to tell me how they had felt, how deeply it had affected them, and for some of them how it had rekindled their desire to perform.
Facing immersive theatre’s distribution difficulty is there a need for new economic models away from the traditional channels?
R. L. – We started trying to use the regular channels by offering our projects to established creators. However, we quickly realised that those structures had their own limitations, whether technical, economic or organisational.
This reality makes Big Drama’s model particularly attractive. This theatre company decided to control the entirety of the value chain : creation, production, circulation, distribution and commercialisation.
Concretely, the team rents a space, comes up with its scenography, runs the experience for several months and handles all communication and marketing. It is a riskier model, but one that has proven successful: all the shows are sold out.
Nowadays I’m more interested in this type of approach.
I sometimes feel like we spend too much time trying to convince traditional structures that without being resistant to the idea have significant constraints they must work within. Instead of waiting for these models to evolve, it seems important, for me, to build spaces and frameworks fitting those new creative formats.
Quels sont aujourd’hui vos principaux projets et vos ambitions pour les années à venir ?
R. L. – I’m currently putting together a consortium around immersive theatre and new technologies in order to apply for a space that would be dedicated to those practices.
In my opinion, one of the main issues remains the awareness-building of both the general audience and institutions. This can only be made possible through a place capable of showing those works at regular intervals as to create true and enduring regular attendance habits.
Nowadays, immersive experiences are quite isolated: a show is performed for several months, then nothing may appear for several years. This gives time for the general audience and professionals alike to lose interest and move on.
My ambition for the next five years is very clear: to contribute to the emergence of a space entirely dedicated to the immersive forms of creation, that places people before technology and allows these practices to become a lasting part of the cultural landscape.
Discover more interviews with curators and programmers on our blog.