The Gate

History

The Gate was first exhibited at the inaugural exhibition for the opening of iMAL new venue, 4-7 OCT 2007 in Brussels. The show explored the fusion between the physical world and the net through networked sculptures and installations. Yves Bernard, the exhibition's curator, initiated the concept for The Gate project, as an attempt to realise a very simple and obvious idea : a window between the worlds of Second Life and Real Life proposing a dual platform for people to meet, act and interact.

iMAL (interactive Media Art Laboratory), is a non-profit association created in Brussels in 1999, to support artistic forms and creative practices using computer and network technologies as their medium. In 2007, iMAL opens the Center for Digital Cultures and Technology, a space for exhibitions, workshops, meetings and lectures.
> imal.org

In Second Life, The Gate was kindly hosted at the Odyssey Project. Odyssey provides resources for artists and arts related organizations within Second Life. Odyssey was founded by Pacino Hercules and Sugar Seville as a place where artists can explore the new virtual space called Second Life. The simulator hosts projects by individual artists and organizations.
> odysseyart.ning.com

For this first appearance of The Gate, we collaborated with Second Front. Second Front is the pioneering performance art group in the online avatar-based VR world, Second Life. Founded in 2006, Second Front quickly grew to its current 8 member troupe taking their influences from numerous sources, including Dada, Fluxus, Futurist Syntesi, the Situationist International and contemporary performance artists like Laurie Anderson. Second Front creates theatres of the absurd that challenge notions of virtual embodiment, online performance and the formation of virtual narrative.
On the vernissage evening, they performed, in Second Life, for both audience. The next days, The Gate zone was used by an always evolving installation, tribute to Kurt Schwiter's Ursonate.

> secondfront.org

In 2009, The Gate was invited to the Broelmuseum, Kortrijk (Belgium), as part of the Fantastic Illusions exhibition. This show explored how Belgian and Chinese artists build illusory spaces for the visitor. It featured works of Nick Ervinck (BE), Hans Op de Beeck (BE), Tale of Tales (BE), Vadim Vosters (BE), Olivier Deprez (BE), Yves Bernard & Yannick Antoine (BE), Bart Stolle (BE), Heidi Voet (BE), CREW (BE), Teddy Lo (CN), Jenova Chen (CN), Aaajiao (CN), Wu Juehui (CN), Hu Jieming (CN), Peng Yun (CN).