Andre Rolon presents their project "Memorias de un Presente Pasado" (Memories of a Present Past) on the 1st November at Kunsthaus Essen, as part of the results of the ICPA-GZ & FCR 2025 residency, awarded to them after winning the EXPYLAB 2024 award.
On Saturday 1st November, at the cultural centre Kunsthaus Essen in Germany, at 5 p.m CET, artist Andre Rolon presents the results of the ICPA-GZ & FCR 2025 artistic residency, a collaboration between the Paraguayan-German Cultural Institute Goethe Zentrum (under the direction of Simone Herdrich) and the German institution Future Campus Ruhr (by Peter Petersen and Sofia Mellino).
A cooperation developed prior to the fourth edition of the Immersive Experiences Laboratory in Asunción (Paraguay), and awarded to Andre Rolon as the grand prize during the EXPYLAB 2024 awards ceremony with the project ‘Memorias de un Pasado Presente".
The presentation on the 1st November consists of testing the second iteration by the German and international public, who will be introduced to the history of the Paraguayan dictatorship for the first time.
is an immersive experience that invites us to inhabit the Plaza de los Desaparecidos, a space of memory that commemorates the victims of the authoritarian regime of dictator Alfredo Stroessner.
This project was originally conceived by Andre Rolon together with Angel Barreto, Ivan Ortiz and Nicolás Ríos during the three-week theoretical-practical residency of EXPYLAB in November 2024. An innovative educational programme in South America that seeks to highlight and develop Paraguayan multidisciplinary talent from all corners of our country to the world. Created by Nicolás Merens.
During the course of the ‘ICPA-GZ & FCR 2025’ award, Andre Rolon continued with the conceptual, aesthetic and technical development of the project, now in its second iteration.
This version has the technological and knowledge support of Future Campus Ruhr, a German non-profit organisation and innovation platform in art, science, and technology, which independently supports the development of low-income artists with great ideas.
The experience was built using 3D scans of the Plaza within the Unity graphics engine and development platform, to be applied in Virtual Reality and Portable Immersive Room formats with spatial sound, developed by FCR in collaboration with Andre Rolon during their first week at the Kunsthaus Essen residency space.
CREATIVE DIRECTION - ANDRE ROLON
FCR - TECHNICAL SUPERVISION - PETER PETERSEN
FCR - PRODUCTION - SOFIA MELLINO
FCR - DESIGN - FELICITAS KOWALAK
FCR - XR CONSULTANCY - MICHAEL ROSA
3D MODELLING - ANGEL BARRETO & MIGUEL GIMENEZ
SONIC MOVES - DEVELOPER - MARC-ANDRE WEIBEZAHN
We thank all our partners
The development of this website has been funded by the Kulturgemeinschaften program of the Kulturstiftung der Länder
