Part 1 | Pre-game

The game is rigged part 1

We can start by saying that we had never done something on this scale before. We knew we wanted to keep talking about gender inequality, but also find a way to involve people more directly in the experience.

We landed on video games because they work on a very familiar promise: with enough effort and persistence, you succeed. We wanted to turn that logic upside down, because for many women the odds are already stacked against them from the beginning. We explain this idea more in depth in the accompanying booklet.

As for the installation itself, immersion became very important to us early on. We wanted the audience to feel surrounded by the work, which is what led us to Arlind, the first stop in this chaotic ride. We had seen a projection mapping installation he had worked on before, so we landed in his office as two complete strangers with an idea and honestly very little understanding of what we were getting ourselves into. Being the nice guy that he is, he really helped us from the get go.

Our initial concept was actually to build a full 5x5x5 cube and create a 360° experience. 

initial sketch we did in Arlind's office

Very quickly we realised that we did not have the budget for that. So instead, we started looking for a space where we could project the work.

Location scouting became a very strange experience because what we really needed wasn’t a glamorous gallery space, but simply clean uninterrupted walls and a ceiling. Still, between the prices and some of the attitudes we encountered, things got discouraging very quickly.

Joli: - One of the managers told me: “We are fully booked for this year, you can write us an email for next year, but we only exhibit established artists, are you just starting out or…” (granted I was not looking my best that day)

When we went to Kinema Agimi and met Klodi, we immediately felt the support and suddenly this crazy idea started feeling like an actual doable project. Honestly, we really consider Klodi one of the main ingredients in making the exhibition happen.

The first photo Joli took of Kinema Agimi. Please excuse the quality, she was still recovering from

the previous venue manager.

Was Kinema Agimi the perfect space for this? No.

The columns were a bit of a nightmare and the ceiling definitely wasn’t the smooth projection surface of our dreams.

Was Kinema Agimi the perfect space for this? Yes.

Because the energy of the people involved was completely there. Klodi was incredibly open to every request we had, and Arlind was excited to work there because he already had a connection with Klodi. It immediately felt collaborative instead of transactional.

The funny part is that all of these conversations and plans were happening before we had even gotten an answer from the open call. So the pressure really started kicking in: what if we didn’t get selected after involving all these people in our very ambitious little crisis?

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We know it's impossible to recreate the feeling of standing inside the installation on a laptop or phone screen, but if you're curious, you can still watch the full sequence here.