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re:publica 18 - Alle Sessions Podcast
Empire of Oil / From Documentary to Performing Arts to VR

Empire of Oil / From Documentary to Performing Arts to VR

re:publica 18 - Alle Sessions vor 8 Jahren

The Berlin based artist group Costa Compagnie took up the subject of oil and conducted interviews in Norway and Iraq, while filming with a 360°-camera, in order to use the footage in an immersive cyclorama-stage and a VR-film. At re:publica 18 the artists

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Felix Meyer-Christian, Erik Kundt Besides all technological
developments, almost every product and service is still being
created with and by the use of oil. With EMPIRE OF OIL, Costa
Compagnie aimed to question this situation by speaking to the
people involved in oil production and/or living in the regional
context of the resource. Divided into three separate intermedial
parts – documentary video, text and dance, framed by a VR
installation – the project circles the complex topic between
documentation and abstraction. Does the powerful resource entail
the potential for a social welfare utopia like in Norway, or does
it lead to a never-ending conflict like in Iraq? What are the
experiences of oil workers and the people who are standing against
fossil fuels? Are there certain aesthetics to the oil-rich
underground – the hidden? And will we survive the oil-age? The
360°-footage was filmed among other places in Stavanger, Bergen,
Erbil, Kirkuk and Mosul and will be presented again in the artists'
immersive 360°-cyclorama-stage at Ballhaus Ost Theater in Berlin in
late May. At re:publica 18, Costa Compagnie will show a video
summary of the project, speak about their process and dig deeper
into the phenomena of the “information bubble” and how to confront
and question it with documentary based arts and media that reach
beyond common aesthetics, narratives and imagery. After the video,
the artists wish to open the panel and discuss the topic of oil
itself and its interrelation with POP-lifestyle and industry with
the audience, but furthermore also challenge the idea of immersive
technology and its potential for an enlarged world view. How does
VR relate to reality? Is a broader digital participation,
storytelling and reporting on a visual and global level really
possible, in order to let us question our relation to war and
consumerism, environment and (digital) territory? Or might it
remain a tech-related extravaganza? And how can interdisciplinary
arts push for moments of irritation and reflection when using the
technology?