On 17 June Germany’s first Virtual Reality & Arts-Festival Hamburg, VRHAM!, closed its doors with a panel talk, the presentation of the People’s Choice Award to VR artist Tamiko Thiel for her piece “Land Of Cloud”, and a big closing party.
From 7 June to 17 June VRHAM! presented a wide variety of Virtual Reality „experiences“ and live performances by national and international artists at Halle 2 in Hamburg’s Oberhafenquartier. Visitors entered the virtual worlds in specifically designed, separated rooms. For the first time four Hamburg-based artists were also presenting their work. The program also included keynotes, discussion panels, and workshops on Virtual Reality.
As part of the Opening Night of the festival an international jury awarded the best VR experience from the main program. The „VRHAMMY Award“ and a prize money of 5,000 Euros went to “The Grass Smells So Sweet” by Dani Ploeger. The “HH Emerging Artists Residency Award”, including a prize money of 2,500 Euros and a residency at Wood Arts Institute by art collector Rik Reinking, went to “TRANS//FORM” by Suse Tietjen, Maria Gibert, Martin Kupfer, and Fabian Knieling. Both prizes were donated by ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius.
Dr. Carsten Brosda, Senator for Culture and Media: „Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and 360° films take art to completely new dimensions. VRHAM! is the first festival to combine experiments and pioneer projects in this field. Hamburg, which has been developing into a pioneering location for Virtual Reality, is the perfect place for a festival like this. Activities from the realm of research, development, science, and economy are now completed by the sphere of art due to VRHAM!”
Most supporters already expressed their will to extend their sponsorship during the festival. Ulrich Schrauth, Artistic Director of VRHAM!: “We are already looking forward to VRHAM! Festival 2019, which will take place in Hamburg again, but will also play a role internationally!”
As part of the Opening Night of VRHAM! 2018 an international jury awarded the best VR experience from the main program. The „VRHAMMY Award“ and a prize money of 5,000 Euros goes to “The Grass Smells So Sweet” by Dani Ploeger. The “HH Emerging Artists Residency Award”, including a prize money of 2,500 Euros and a residency at Woods Art Institute by art collector Rik Reinking, goes to “TRANS//FORM” by Suse Tietjen, Maria Gibert, Martin Kupfer, and Fabian Knieling. Both prizes were donated by ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius.
Jury and award winners
Dani Ploeger (VRHAMMY Award for “The Grass Smells So Sweet”)
Fabian Knieling, Suse Tietjen, Maria Gibert, Martin Kupfer (HH Emerging Artists Residency Award winners for “TRANS//FORM”)
VRHAM! is Germany’s first artistic Virtual Reality festival. VRHAM! is not an exhibition, not a museum, not a technology park, not a trade fair. VRHAM! is an experiment. Together with you we want to discover, experience, discuss and understand the relatively new art form of Virtual Reality. VRHAM! is presenting a large variety of outstanding international VR experiences in Hamburg’s Oberhafenquartier, unique in its form and sure to transcend the borders of traditional perception and experience of art. Among them are individual and group experiences as well as live performances. And then there is of course our discourse program covering a wide variety of VR-related topics.
VRHAM! 2018 brings the full variety of artistic Virutal Reality to Hamburg: try out international, outstanding VR experiences and attend keynotes, panels and workshops about Virtual Reality & art.
Location: Oberhafenquartier, Halle 2, Hamburg HafenCity
Let’s VRHAM!
Can’t make it to Hamburg for the festival? Too bad! But thanks to our festival partner Magenta VR (Telekom) you can still be with us: Discover a selection of experiences from our program on the free online channel „VRHAM! 2018 @ Magenta VR“. With your mobile VR glasses, Google Cardboard or on your desktop computer you can stream most of the pieces shown at our festival via our own VRHAM!2018 channel on the Magenta VR app.
