Habitats — VR environment by Matthieu Vanier, majestic minimalist shapes in post-physical space
Curated Exhibition · Art Mûr · January–April 2022

Matthieu Vanier Habitats

Dates
January 15 – April 23, 2022
Medium
Virtual Reality
Music
Thomas Speakman
Curator
Samuel Arsenault-Brassard

Visitors choose their own path through majestic, minimalist shapes, a world of floating architectural forms unbound by gravity or function. The longest-running VR exhibition of the Art Mûr program.

Habitats is a VR experience that explores space, physicality and time. The piece changes throughout the exposition. At the beginning, the world is orderly, clean and controlled. As the show progresses, the world fragments, becoming more chaotic, moving in unpredictable ways. This time-based corruption creates a continuously changing landscape and a narrative that shifts chronologically.

The experience suggests a dephysicalization. We are no longer physical bodies within a world, rather spirits floating through a digital mindscape. For these brief moments, we become light, colour, sound, a landscape of ancient entities in eternal confluence. We perceive a soft cycle of creation and destruction, the pulse of a cosmic breath.

Habitats — VR screenshot, minimalist architectural forms floating in digital void
The world begins orderly and clean. As the show progresses, it fragments, moving in unpredictable ways. Each visit reveals a different stage of entropy.
Habitats — VR environment, orderly minimalist shapes in early stage of the experience
Habitats — VR environment mid-evolution, forms beginning to fragment and shift
Habitats — VR environment in late stage, chaotic fragmentation of pseudo-architectural forms

In the Gallery

Installation photographs from Galerie Art Mûr. Habitats ran for over three months, the longest exhibition of the VR program, allowing the time-based corruption of the virtual world to unfold gradually for returning visitors.

Habitats — visitor experiencing VR at Art Mûr
Habitats — gallery installation with VR headset station
Habitats — gallery opening, visitors engaging with the exhibition
Habitats — VR experience setup at Art Mûr