VIRUS

Every:r now has an opinion on how to deal with an epidemic. But how would you deal with it yourself? What can we learn from what we have experienced in the last few months? And what would be the outcome of our decisions? In the participatory performance VIRUS, completed by Yan Duyvendak together with game developers and scientists in 2019, you can collectively find a way out of the pandemic and influence the future through your decisions. You are shaping the world of tomorrow.

What would you do if you were responsible for closing or not closing the borders or the schools? How would you manage the resources? And what would be the outcome of your decisions? Would you make ethical decisions? Would you cheat to save your world? How far would you go?

VIRUS is inspired by realistic pandemic scenarios developed by the European Union in collaboration with a French inter-ministerial structure as an exercise for governments and hospitals. It is a simulation game conceived since 2018 in collaboration with scientists and game developers. When a pandemic breaks out and arrives in your country, you are called upon to make drastic decisions in a crisis situation.

“Creating a better world” – Read more in the HELLERAU online magazine.

Interview with Yan Duyvendak on the VIRUS project

Yan Duyvendak, born in Holland, studied at the École supérieure d’art visuel in Geneva. He has been working as a performance artist worldwide since 1995. Many of his video works are now part of public and private collections, for example at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and the Museum für Kommunikation in Bern. In 2010, he received the most prestigious award for contemporary art in Switzerland, the Meret Oppenheim Prize.