Ugo Arsac Shows Cannes Winner KATÁBASIS at Onassis ONX
The gaze-steered documentary, built from 3D scans of New York's tunnels, had its U.S. debut in the group show What Remains.
KATÁBASIS had its U.S. debut at Onassis ONX in New York from Sept. 25 to Oct. 4, in the group exhibition What Remains. It is an interactive documentary by the Marseille artist Ugo Arsac, and it won Best Immersive Work at this year's Cannes Film Festival. ONX showed it as an installation: point clouds projected across the walls of a dark room, with a glowing red orb on a plinth.
An excerpt from KATÁBASIS. Video: Ugo Arsac
The material came from under the city. As a Villa Albertine resident in 2023, Arsac went into New York's tunnels, shelters and waterworks and came back with 3D scans and audio interviews with people who live, work or take refuge there. Arsac wrote after the show about hours spent in the sewers "with a headlamp, boots and a 3D scanner."
Scanning in the tunnels for KATÁBASIS. Video: Ugo Arsac
The piece renders those spaces, and the people in them, as drifting clouds of white points. ONX described it as navigated by the viewer's gaze alone. The title is the Greek word for a descent into the underworld.
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