ZED Festival is an avant-garde and poetically creative field of action that is expressed in real places and virtual spaces, a perfect balance between technology, future, culture, dance, nature and community. Read More

A crossroads of ideas, perspectives, people and far-sighted visions, the festival directs its gaze towards a cycle of unique, multifaceted and extraordinarily fascinating events declined in the relationship between screen and dancing body. Video dance films, previews, exclusives and auteur short films, XR experiences of virtual reality and augmented reality, 360° films that can be enjoyed from a VR headset, video installations, thematic meetings and workshops are the ingredients of a powerful international programming that makes XR technology and the digitization of dance increasingly familiar, everyday and close to the spectator. ZED Festival is a simultaneous activity between organs, people, ideas and objectives, a point of reference for videodance and its expressions throughout the country with an unusual, empathetic, innovative formula.

DAZZLE is a multidimensional choreography and immersive installation combining performance, virtual reality, and fashion created by Gibson, Martelli, Pollmann, and Roth. ZED Festival presents ‘DAZZLE: SOLO’ alongside video footage of rehearsals and behind-the-scenes explorations. Influenced by the rhythms and colours of early 20th-century naval camouflage and Italian futurist Thayaht’s groundbreaking ‘Tuta-suit‘ garment design, the project was ignited by the original Dazzle Ball, which took place in 1919 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Dressing up in real life introduces the work and physically recreates the virtual act of inhabiting an avatar. The costumes exhibited are selected from fifty fashion designers who co-created unique zero-waste garments. The pattern collection is open-source and available online.

‘DAZZLE: SOLO’ has been exhibited at the London Film Festival 2020 Festival D’Avignon 2022, Meet Milan 2023 and IDAF Istanbul 2024.The large-scale performance of ‘DAZZLE – A Reassembly of Bodies’ premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, La Biennale Di Venezia and VR Days, Rotterdam, in 2022.

‘…giddying perspectives, algorithmic choreography and psychedelic dancing figures – humanoid, geometric or entirely abstract – that can pass right through you like digital ectoplasm. It’s pure fantasy…’ Sanjoy Roy – The Guardian