Residency SCENE44 I Guangli Liu - J'y étais, cette nuit-là
Residency: 20 > 24 avril 2026
Guangli Liu
J'y étais, cette nuit-là
Immersive Interactive Virtual Reality Experience
J'y étais, cette nuit-là is an immersive virtual reality (VR) experience exploring the fragmented memories of young Chinese dissidents — from the White Paper Movement (2022) to the Shanghai lockdown, the Urumqi fire tragedy, and the historical figure of Lin Zhao.
Rather than reconstructing events, the project seeks to make them felt. By placing the viewer at the heart of mechanisms of oppression — bodily control, surveillance, confinement — it asks a brutal question: when facing a system that crushes, are we innocent victims or silent accomplices?
The body is central to this experience. In the installation version, the viewer is invited to adopt physical postures inspired by detention methods: crouching, hands behind the head. The tracking system detects these postures — disobedience triggers a hostile environment, while compliance unlocks memory fragments.
Dance intervenes as rupture. At key moments, choreographic expression breaks the cycle of constraint. The dancing body becomes the emotional counterpoint to the imprisoned body — a gesture of symbolic and visceral liberation. This dimension is developed in collaboration with choreographic artist Emma Terno and the European choreographic creation venue SCÈNE44 / n+n Corsino in Marseille.
The April 2026 residency at SCÈNE44 is the first phase of this work: an exploration of bodily expressions linked to constraint and resistance, in preparation for the professional Motion Capture session planned for late 2026. The goal is to find the right gestural vocabulary — one that conveys the tension between a body under control and a will that refuses to bend.
Virtual environments are built from 3D scans (Gaussian Splatting), Unreal Engine 5 modelling, and AI-generated imagery. Faces are never fixed or recognizable — they evoke erasure, censorship, the disruption of identity. Space itself takes shape as testimony unfolds, like a memory reconstructing itself.
Concept, Direction & Artistic Direction: Guangli Liu
Choreographic Artist / Performer: Emma Terno
Script Consultant: Gala Hernández López
Dramaturgical Advisor: Adelin Schweitzer
Visual Advisor: Nicolas Gourault
Technical Development & Programming: Collectif Invitro Media (Xiyue Hu & Xing Xiao)
Sound Design & Mixing: Martin Delzescaux
3D Assistants: Xixin Kong, Zirui Chen
Storyboard: Zhang He
Intern: Juliette Lebre (INSEAAM — Les Beaux-Arts de Marseille)
Executive Production — DDA Contemporary Art (Diffusing Durable Art), Marseille
President: Dominique Hardouin | Residency contact: Constance-Juliette Meffre
Co-productions and in-kind contributions:
SCENE44 . n + n Corsino, European venue for choreographic creation and digital innovation (Marseille)
ONEI Studio (China)
HUNAN SUIYI CULTURAL COMMUNICATION Co. Ltd (China)
Supported by:
CNC — Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (Development Grant)
Partners:Le Front de la Liberté (Paris), DELETERRE (Marseille), École supérieure d'arts & médias de Caen/Cherbourg, Campid'Arte (Sardinia)
www.guangliliu.com
