© Juha Hansen
STEP CLOSER
a XR performance | 30 min | Germany | 2026
English
SYNOPSIS
The documentary Extended Reality Performance STEP CLOSER – CROSSING BORDERS invites the audience to embody the role of a refugee and a border guard, opening space for encounter and exploring the potential for perspective change.
Europe’s external borders are socially marginalized sites of power, separation, and violence but sometimes also places of humanity and resistance. In our documentary XR performance we explore this gap, bringing together the genres of film and performance, based on concepts of “embodied cognition.” The project is questioning if adopting a perspective – not just mentally, but with one’s own body – could enable us to shift our own perception.
The project is scaling down the European debate on security and isolation to the human scale of two personal destinies by exploring the realities of a refugee and a border guard at Europe’s external borders. Through a combination of documentary footage and performative 3D reenactments, the project examines the personal impact of current asylum policies on those seeking protection and those tasked with providing it. Both sides have experienced physical and psychological limits – now they meet face to face.
Two participants enter the virtual space with VR headsets. Both act as an interactive avatar and make their own body available for the narration of the two “border experts”. The experience guides the audience through an emotional, ethical and existential question, allowing them to adopt each other’s perspectives.
The project is questioning: What happens when we cross borders? What happens when we encounter people whose actions and decisions we do not understand? Can an experiment like this open up new spaces of reflection and imagination?
CREDITS
experts & avatars CHERIF HUSSEIN & TIM LINNIG
performers THE AUDIENCE
direction, video & scenography TÒ SU MARTINA MAHLKNECHT & MARTIN PRINOTH
music ATENA ESHTIAGHI
vr-developer LEONHARD ONKEN-MENKE
new media artist TOM LANE
costumes GLORIA BRILLOWSKA
film team camera LILLI THALGOTT
film team sound STEFFEN REIL
production ANKE PETERSEN
assistant to the directors LIV PEDERSEN
photography JUHA HANSEN
graphics BÜRO KLASS
thanks to LUISE NAGEL, DIALOG IN DEUTSCH
© Juha Hansen
OPEN STUDIO
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SUPPORTERS
STEP CLOSER is a TÒ SU production in co-production with Kampnagel Hamburg, supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste and MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein.