Project Description
In Traversing the Mist by Tung-Yen CHOU (a Very Theatre Taipei production), participants embodying a Taiwanese young man venture into a surreal gay sauna, a poetic dreamscape woven with desires and fears. Crossing eyes with the other sauna-goers who all have the same face, you walk along every floor, corridor, and room. Each layer of the maze irreversibly unravels behind your back, and eventually everything disappears. With Traversing the Mist, CHOU Tung-Yen pushes the boundaries of real-time XR technology and narrative, and expands the visionary XR universe with this free-roaming 6DoF multi-user immersive experience.
Traversing the Mist presentations:
* November 13-24, 2023 – Competition DOClab IDFA Amsterdam – world premiere (NL)
* April 25-28, 2024: Competition Newimages Festival Paris – international premiere (FR)
* April 26, 2024: Winner Grand Prize Newimages Festival Paris (FR)
* May 14 -15, 2024: Competition Cannes Festival (FR)
* July 29 – August 1, 2024: Nominated for SIGGRAPH 2024 Award (USA)
* October 12-27, 2024: Competition Kaohsiung Film Festival (Taiwanese premiere)
* October 1, 2025 – Nominated for Annwn Prize Wales (UK)
* October 30-31, 2025 – Espronceda Institute for Art & Culture Barcelona – Spanish premiere
* November 28 – December 14, 2025: YPAM / Art Center New (Japan)
* July 12 – 26, 2026: Podium Mozaiek (NL)
* October 15 – 18, 2026: Royal Birmingham Conservatory (UK)
Reviews of Traversing the Mist
DOClab founding programmer Casper Sonnen: “Traversing the Mist opens up a world that is uncomfortable or intimidating for many people, in this case the gay sauna.” In a dim and steamy environment, vague but clearly naked male figures emerge staring at you or ignoring you. Sometimes the men look sensual, and sometimes shy. As you stroll through the spaces, you’ll experience both the intimacy and solitude of a gay sauna. “You’re there, but you’re not, because the VR glasses keep you an outsider.” An extra layer to the experience is the presence of other participants who are also in the same room as you in real-life with VR glasses on. “The game of watching and being watched is therefore even more exciting. Moreover, VR glasses are also a bit of a blindfold. In a much layered and also tasteful way, you get to know the ambiguity of a subculture.”
JURY REPORT Newimages Festival: “We would like to recognize a work that rendered us speechless and knowingly connected, after we took off the headsets. This groundbreaking communal, immersive experience offered us a cohesive and viscerally embodied voyeuristic journey that spanned the full spectrum of fear, desire, discovery, corporality, community, aging, and death. And onto a timeless state of cosmic being, as we joyously join the stars as a key to a bathhouse locker. The Grand Jury Prize goes to Traversing the Mist.” – Shari Frilot (Jury Chairperson of the 7th NewImages Festival).
Founded by theater and media artist Chou Tung-yen with the resources of its partner company, Very Mainstream Studio. Very Theatre takes new media as its core. It focuses on creating interdisciplinary works with a strong emphasis on narrative and text, which strive to envision new ways of seeing and performing.
After they participated in the Finance Bridge of Venice Film Festival, I facilitated a short residency for Very Theatre director Chou Tung-Yen and co-producer Sebox Hong in Felix Meritis, Amsterdam. I invited professionals in the Netherlands so we could pitch and discuss collaborating, co-producing, presenting, and facilitating VR/AR/Immersive projects here in the Netherlands and Taiwan.
It resulted in the world premiere of Chou’s project Traversing in the Mist at IDFA DOClab 2023. As an international consultant for Tung-Yen CHOU / Very Theatre, my role is to promote, distribute, and present their work outside Taiwan, in part made possible by a grant from the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan (2023 – 2025).
The project is part of Trilogy of Mist: In the Mist (VR360, 2021), Gazing, in the Mist (Theatre/VR, 2022), and Traversing the Mist (XR roaming multi-user experience, 2023). Directed by Chou Tung-Yen, produced by Very Theatre Taipei, international representation by SDPM Amsterdam.
