Aqua Paradiso

Adrien M & Claire B

〈Acqua Alta – Crossing the Mirror〉, 2019.

Pop-up book in augmented reality
Pop-up book: 28×23cm (10)

Adrien M & Claire B creates artworks that combines reality and virtual reality by using specially invented information technology in various areas embracing performing arts and exhibitions, centered on digital art and performances. They set the human body at the center of their technical and artistic challenge. Through the visual language based on play and pleasure that trigger the imagination, the artists apply the current technology to create a poem transcends the time.
The title, Acqua Alta, meaning “high water” in Italian, refers to a sea level anomaly (a phenomenon in which the surface of the sea level rises beyond the normal state) that regularly occurs in Venice. The Acqua Alta phenomenon is worsening interconnected with the recent drastic climate change. This is also a symbolic indicator to the crisis today. Acqua Alta – Crossing the Mirror by Adrien M & Claire B is the story of a woman, a man, and a house. The audience is invited to the performance that unfolds in augmented reality (AR) through the medium of a pop-up book. In one damp and rainy day, rising water levels flood a house. The woman slips and disappears and only her hair is left. It is alive. The story of this work first indicates the climate change humans confront, but it gradually expands to the theme of unusual but universal disaster, and exploration and loss. At the same time, the work advances towards fear to otherness and the critical mind as a means to tame such fear.