Lost in the middle of a universal internet, visitors wander through a virtual museum, dressed in wacky avatars. In this psychedelic-tinged anticipation documentary, it is through the bewildered gaze of a fish who arrived there by chance while surfing the internet that the filmmakers lift the veil on the visitors' imaginations and their intimate view of art and the museum space.
Normal Planet
a film by
Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse, Quentin L'helgoualc'h
Combined biography
Guilhem Causse, Ekiem Barbier and Quentin L’helgoualc’h met at the School of Fine Arts of Montpellier. In 2016 they formed a research group that questions the relationship to reality in online video games. In 2017 they tried their hand at a first documentary exploration in the game GTA V Online, and directed the medium-length film Marlowe Drive, which they screened during a retrospective exhibition of David Lynch’s cinema at the Art Center of Montpellier, MO.CO. The film goes to meet avatars animated by real people and addresses issues concerning our relationship to virtual through the representation of the American consumerist dream suggested by the game. The film was presented at the Brive medium-length film festival, at the FIFIB Bordeaux, at the Centquatre studio and at the Cartier foundation, among others. In 2018 they began writing a feature-length documentary, also shot entirely in an online game. This time, they each chose to play an avatar in the survival simulation video game DayZ. For several years they immerse themselves in the game within a community of players willing to take part in the project. In 2022 the film production was completed. Meanwhile, they take part in seminars and conferences on digital technology, like at the Turing Centre at ETH Zurich, at the Sorbonne and at the University of Paris 8.
Combined filmography
● Knit’s Island, 2013 (documentary)
● Marlowe Drive, 2017 (short documentary)
