Arena at Gamerz festival

I got back yesterday from another edition of the Gamerz festival in Aix-en-Provence. I don’t think there’s a festival anywhere in the world i visit with more enthusiasm. First of all, it takes place in Aix-en-Provence which is always a bonus. But more importantly, the festival has a strong, unique personality. Gamerz, the organizers would tell you, is only a pretext to invite artists, designers, researchers whose work they admire. And they even have to do game art. The opening performance, for example, wasn’t the compulsory electronic music performance, it was an astonishing concert given by Choeur Itineris, professional choir singers interpreting a repertoire of mobile phone ringtones. The rest of the festival programme involves robots, dipterous experiences, video art, food artists, a ‘half ship, half woman’ DJ and other surprising works. And game art too.

Parc des Princes stadium, Paris (detail)

What makes the festival worth the trip for me is that Gamerz always manages to scout young, talented artists i had never heard about. Before i get back to you with a proper report, here’s a brief entry about Geraud Soulhiol‘s extraordinary drawings. His Arena series portrays existing football stadium that are not only decaying and crumbling but have also been colonized by more traditional icons of architectures such as cathedrals, local monuments, skyscrapers designed by starchitects, fortresses, factories, etc. The feeling of desolation is increased by the fact that the hybrid structures are presented in the middle of an empty white page, like carcasses abandoned in the desert.

Stamford Bridge stadium, London

Stamford Bridge stadium, London (detail)

The images on this blog post are quite miserable but the large scale ones are spectacular and it takes a few minutes to uncover all the details.

What brings us back to the world of game art is that Geraud Soulhiol was inspired by the spirit and aesthetics of strategy video games, in particular the isometric perspective many of them adopt.

Craven Cottage, London (detail)