First Day

First Day is a single-user, interactive, immersive project that places users directly in the immediate wartime situation, allowing them to experience firsthand the impacts of terror and disorientation as the war erupted. But not only. It challenges users to learn how to control themselves and make split-second decisions that can help save lives. Users relive how people quickly learned to survive, resist and build resilience in an unjust attack. First Day is a journey where community, help, and empathy are primary elements to breathe and survive. Our immersive and interactive experience seeks to help others navigate crises by showing how choosing to transform inwardly from victim to helper can empower resistance and life. First Day is intended as a prologue to subsequent virtual war stories as a testament to the power of the human spirit.

First Day shows how the first day (24 February 2022) of the unexpected Russian attack on Ukraine affected the Ukrainian people. We were lucky enough to be selected and supported by the Biennale College Cinema VR. These workshops and the team of the College offered us a space to explore our creativity through our lives and stories. And this is my favourite piece of work so far. First Day is part of a much larger artistic VR project, the Virtual Museum of War. And as First Day, it aims to preserve a vital interactive record of the war and our inner transformation for future generations. Pictures and videos cannot fully convey the trauma ordinary people living in Ukraine experienced, and as artists, we think this experience happened many times elsewhere in the world and, unfortunately, will still happen. VR allows us to walk through historical events in someone else’s shoes, thus evoking greater empathy. I believe First Day can potentially change our idea of what it means to be human in society. And we want to tell everyone under such circumstances and traumas: we hear and see you. You are not alone.

PRODUCTION: Svitlana Korshunova,Valeriy Korshunov - Anotherland Llc
Symyrenko str., 22-G, 233
03134 – Kyiv, Ukraine
Tel. +380 675022058
Mob. +380 660581323
sveta.artefact@gmail.com
http://www.digitalculture.in.ua

PRESS OFFICE 1: La Biennale di Venezia – Biennale College Cinema
Ca’ Giustinian 1364/a
30124 – Venezia, Italy
Tel. +39 041 2726644
presscinema@labiennale.org
college-cinema@labiennale.org

PRESS OFFICE 2: Maria Tintul – Anotherland LLC
Symyrenko 22G, 233
03134 – Kyiv, Ukraine
Tel. +380 638584600
Mob. +34 643321530
firstdayvr@gmail.com