Finding Frida, a 41-minute VR documentary, premiered at Venice Immersive this week, turning the spotlight on forgotten Norwegian textile artist Frida Hansen. The experience uses photorealistic 3D scans alongside animated artwork to reconstruct the world of a woman whose work once held international acclaim but later slipped from the public eye. Visitors enter a miniature Art Nouveau villa that expands to full scale, allowing them to interact with archival photographs and woven pieces that serve as gateways into specific moments of Hansen’s life.
The Vision and Production behind Finding Frida
Director Hilde K. Kjøs leads this project, marking her first foray into the VR medium after years of work in traditional documentary filmmaking and photography. The narrative is shaped by Cecilie Levy, Hansen’s great-great-granddaughter, who authored the script to ensure an intimate connection to the subject matter. Levy guides the viewer through the experience, moving beyond a standard biographical account by blending historical sources with voice-over material drawn directly from interviews with the artist herself.
Production company RippleX Studios handled the technical execution, relying on the expertise of founder Bjørn-Morten Nerland. With over 15 years in immersive media, the team opted for a stylistic approach that mirrors the shifting fortunes of Hansen. A lush garden scene, for example, undergoes a visual decay as the documentary covers the period of the artist’s bankruptcy and personal struggles, effectively using the spatial medium to convey emotional weight. The project’s atmosphere relies heavily on an original score paired with carefully curated foley work to ground the digital recreations in reality.
Industry Context and Future Distribution
Venice Immersive serves as the initial exhibition site for this project, with showings running through September 12 as part of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival. While the installation currently relies on specialized hardware to present the 3D-scanned environments, the creators have confirmed that PCVR and standalone formats exist. No firm release date or digital storefront availability has been provided for home users at this time. The team is now pivoting toward securing exhibition space at museums and cultural centers within Norway and across the international art circuit.
This project reflects a broader trend of cultural institutions using immersive technology to digitize and preserve the legacies of overlooked historical figures. By digitizing textile archives and Art Nouveau structures, creators can bypass the limitations of physical space and fragile historical artifacts. Future success for Finding Frida will likely depend on whether the production can bridge the gap between niche festival circuits and broader distribution models that bring digital art to public audiences. For now, the focus remains on the premiere, with the development team actively seeking new partnerships to expand the scope of the exhibition.