Isabelle Van Grimde is interested in our perception of the body and its future in an increasingly technological and virtual world. Her work is characterized in particular by the quality of the dialogue she establishes between dance and other artistic disciplines, and by the harmonious integration of new technologies. An artist-researcher who is very much open to the world, she conducts theoretical and fundamental research on the body that fuels and underpins her artistic approach.

Presented below are examples of Isabelle Van Grimde’s work that reflect her research on the body and digital technology.
 

LES GESTES – 2013

In this project, technological innovation is once again placed in service of art, providing the audience with a new world of perception, new approaches to creation and new keys for understanding the body and music. Never have interactions between dancers and musicians been so re ned, so visceral or so magical. A highly original sensory experience that blurs boundaries in an exaltation of the combined power of music and dance.

 

SYMPHONIE 5.1 – 2016

Symphonie 5.1 plunges its dancers into an interactive visual environment orchestrated by music that is performed live onstage. This intriguing universe, where reality and fiction merge together, gives way to astonishing visions: a silhouette splits in two, a body pixellates until it dissolves completely. Isabelle Van Grimde questions fluctuating states of identity, the perception of the body and its evolution.

 

EVE 2050 – 2018 (Installation)

Eve 2050: The Installation features alternative scenarios to the web series on three interactive holographic panels and two sculptures. Set up in a gallery, the panels generate five digital environments that show five facets of Eve, inviting visitors to discover her world.

Projected onto the transparent panels are images of Eve blended with images of the spectators and performers present. These images are filmed, processed and projected in real time, making visitors part of Eve’s story as they play with their own reflections in the virtual mirrors. The interactive devices take visitors into a parallel world. As they explore the space, they trigger sounds emitted by invisible cones. No two people trigger the same sound. Visitors create their own narration through the paths they choose and the surfaces they touch. Each experience is unique. When the dancers are in the installation, the primal body and body of the future are brought together in a dance where living and virtual become entangled to the point of being indistinguishable.