For this exhibition, we designed and produced five stage devices that support, arrange and illuminate a series of 3D printed artworks and virtual reality viewers. The arrangement of the scenic devices at the four corners of the space supports the narrative and enters into dialogue with the guide and the viewers. The devices are both functional and evocative; their presence, materials and composition are reminiscent of archaic, crude, metallic torture instruments with exposed bolts and adjustment and fastening systems.

A location-based multiplayer installation, The Gossips’ Chronicles combines an IRL guided tour of a torture museum with a VR experience to tell the story of the Gossips, a population who lived around the fifth century AD and are now extinct. Skilled artisans, they made precious objects to channel the energy of the universe, interact with plants, clone DNA and master the weathers. However, their independence did not last long, their tools were stolen and used to torture and exterminate them. These objects have survived to become instruments of torture exhibited in museums all over the world. In our exhibition the Guide, the last witness of the Gossips’ traditions, welcomes the public, inviting them to discover this different point of view on history.