[KNOWN]. End of Life

DARUM is entering the digital world. In his latest performative installation [EOL]. End of Life Victoria Halper and Kai Krösche take the audience on a journey to the fictional Metaverse 1.0 from the near future — a virtual reality that has been retired and is gradually falling into oblivion. This intense, immersive experience takes you through crumbling virtual worlds, raising questions about what digital footprints we will leave behind when we are gone and who will decide the fate of our digital heritage in the future.

What impression do abandoned virtual worlds create? How much life is left in a digital reconstruction of a deceased person? Who are we in the presence of those who have passed away? And what will lack space in the future corporate-controlled metaverse?

Developing the threads taken up in the hypertext installation 404-TOTLINK from 2021, created for the German Impulse Theater Festival, the DARUM collective in [EOL]. End of Life gives audiences a glimpse into the not-too-distant future through the Meta Quest 3 virtual reality headset.

The participants take on the role of external collaborators of the fictional, billion-dollar corporation IRL (Imaginary Reality Landscapes). Their task is to decide which of the abandoned virtual worlds deserve to continue to exist in the metaverse of the future, and which should be irretrievably removed.

[KNOWN]. End of Life guides participants through a series of three-dimensional spaces that can be freely explored. Each of them hides the traces left by their human creators. In the slowly disintegrating Metaverse 1.0, already disconnected from the web servers, digital echoes of past lives still resound. It is a journey that prompts us to reflect on how we will one day be remembered — and how we ourselves would like to remain in the memory of others.

[KNOWN]. End of Life was included in the list of the ten best theater productions of 2024 by FALTER magazine and was recognized by DER STANDARD as one of the three most important theatrical events of the year. The installation also received a nomination for NACHTKRITIK-THEATERTREFFEN 2025, submitted by the editor of the portal nachtcriti.de, Janis El-Bira.

https://www.darum.at/endoflife?lang=en

The whole show takes place individually in VR glasses, you have an influence on the course and scenario of the events. Due to the logistics of the event, please arrive 15 minutes early. Late viewers will not be allowed into the auditorium.

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