Born in 1996 in Schimmert, in the Netherlands, Celine Daemen seems to be one of the most cutting-edge researchers and VR artists in the field of immersive arts. Winner of last year’s edition of Venice Immersive, the VR section of the 81st Venice International Film Festival, and president of this year’s jury, Daemen – together with her team, Studio Nergens (literally “Studio Nowhere” in English) – works on unique VR experiences that, through a transdisciplinary approach, take the viewer on an inner and emotional journey. Often set in a liminal space, which plays with the “impossible geometries” of the virtual environment, Daemen’s pieces let those who experience them address universal philosophical questions. What does it mean to be? Are mind and body two separate things? We had the opportunity to interview her on the occasion of the Venice Film Festival, and what emerged is a conversation on the themes of immersiveness, emotions and art in a broader sense.
Why did you choose virtual reality as a means of expression?
I come from a theater background. I studied theater at the Academy of Performative Arts in Maastricht. And then I just got really excited about the idea of the audience not sitting on a chair. There’s a lot of distance in the relationship between audience and the spectator. In the idea of immersion, at least, the audience is really becoming a part of it. At least in my piece, they are walking through the piece. So I find that very exciting as well that they don’t become spectators of someone else or of a story, but they really experience it first-hand and then form reflections on it. So to me, that just feels like a very direct and very strong emotional experience as well. And then I also really like that the body becomes a part of this. What I find really exciting, even in the smallest forms of VR, is that even when you only look around, you still are more present there than you are in regular film. So you choose where to look or you choose where to stand, you choose at what pace you walk through it.
You said that being with your body inside the experience also gives you the opportunity to enhance the emotional impact. But what's the role of narrative elements in this enhancement?
I think, and that’s just to speak about my own work, that atmospheres and spaces are much more important than narration. It’s not as much as experiencing a story, but it’s experiencing spaces. I don’t think it has a narrative quality, but I think it’s even more direct than telling a story. A story is, in a sense, also already a bit rational or distant. Then when you’re just standing in a space and maybe you’re afraid of the dark or you’re mesmerized by the stars in the sky, there is a narrative quality that is also fictional. It’s not like placing this story in between, it’s literally you that is enjoying those stars. And this can bring your own fears or desires (which is what art has done over centuries and centuries: making you experience something about yourself).
You told me about spaces, and your works are often set in a liminal space. What's the role of liminal spaces in your practice?
The spaces that I create in VR, they are reflecting reality, but they’re not reality. I try to make spaces that mirror reality, because I do think that that’s where the power of art lies. What is very new to VR as well, is that it’s not staged in reality like film. It’s not like you take a film shot at this beach and then we have a film on a beach. You get to walk through space that is not real. In both My last two pieces, for example [Eurydice. A Descent Into Infinity (2022) and Songs for a Passerby (2023), both presented at the last two editions of Venice Immersive] you walk on a surface of 5 to 6 meters. You walk around in a circle and every time you walk around the corner, inside VR, you walk into a new space. If you would stand outside of VR, you would just see someone walking in circles on a flat surface. But to the experience of the people wearing the headset, they walk from space to space.
Therefore, how much does VR have to do with reality, and how much doesn't it have to do with reality?
I think it’s a bit like a dream, maybe. When we dream, we are completely free of any boundaries of reality. This makes me think of one of my favorite sentences from Solaris by Stanislav Lem. It’s a book about a psychologist that is in some space. And I’m not sure if I’m going to quote this perfectly now, but at some point, one of the astronauts, they travel to space and they talk about why humanity wants to travel to outer space. And then one of these astronauts says, “We don’t travel to outer space to discover new worlds because there is no need for other worlds. The only thing that we really need is mirrors”. I think that’s a really beautiful image when you think of VR.
What’s the role of the binomial of body and mind in Songs for a Passerby? Do you actually see these two elements as opponents, or are they related by a non-dichotomous bond?
That’s a really good question. I think this is the question that I’ve been asking for the past five years of making work. That it still can’t conclude or something. I make those works also to form new thoughts (or new questions) on this. Questions just lead to more questions. My next piece will, again, be circling around this theme because I can’t wrap my head around it. And that’s what fascinates me so much. Maybe asking the question is more important than having the answer to it. To me, creating a piece is not about making a statement in the end. In a hypothetical sense, the mind can think free of a body as well. But I’m not sure if that’s a statement as “I think this is how body and mind are or are not one”. But I do think that in our life, we can experience them as separate. And that’s maybe also what in the end my work is about, not as much about making claims of what reality is, but maybe reflecting upon experiences of reality.
LINK
- Between dust and algorithms. A day with Damiano Tata in his studio - October 24, 2025
- Giuliana Cunéaz: art as an exploration between science and wonder - September 12, 2025
- Beyond the screen: immersion, embodiment, and empathy at Venice Immersive - August 29, 2025
