EUX

Submerged in a virtual world

In his work with CREW, Eric Joris seeks a mixture of theatre and technology. Through the use of ‘immersive’ technologies CREW explores the boundaries of the aesthetic experience. The company’s productions seem to transform the spectator into the protagonist. But in whose story? The creations constantly negotiate this question with the spectator. The answer involves taking a walk along the boundaries of our senses.

EUX is based on the idea of the ‘doppelgänger’ which has been interpreted since the Romantic Movement as an eerie encounter between the individual and his own ego. Through the use of technological protheses, the spectator’s body is duplicated in a mirror image that appears to be more real than the ‘true image’. This blurring of the boundary between fiction and reality confuses the spectator. Is the world he experiences around him a performance of his own creation or is it precisely the other way around? In EUX the visitor is submerged in a virtual world: the project offers an ‘immersive’ experience for one person at a time.

EUX is the result of a study and creation residency at La Chartreuse (Centre National des Ecritures de Spectacles, Villeneuve lez Avignon) in April 2008. For this production Joris worked with the young French writer Eli Commins and others. Following this the project was developed further at various locations.