Katabasis
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Nominees and Awards
- ★ 2026 Festival de Cannes Immersive Competition Best Immersive Work
Synopsis
Katabasis guides you into the city’s hidden veins – spaces known by people rarely seen: unhoused souls, unseen laborers, abyssal poets, seekers of the invisible. Ugo Arsac amplifies their raw, intimate voices, creating an immersive journey where poetic evocation and documentary truth intertwine – a story of escape, longing, and the urgent necessity to exist.
Drawing from the myth of "katabasis" – the descent into the underworld – this project reveals New York’s shadowed terrains: beneath its urban frenzy lies a network of shelters, tunnels, waterworks and hidden corridors.
Team
Director
Ugo ARSAC
Ugo Arsac is a visual and digital artist based in Marseille, and one of the rising voices in contemporary immersive creation. In 2026, he notably won the Grand Prize of the Immersive Competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
At the crossroads of mythology, anthropology, and urban exploration, his work captivates through its formal rigor and poetic depth. He creates films, installations, XR experiences, and graphic works that have been exhibited in major festivals and venues internationally.
He recently held residencies at Villa Albertine in New York and Villa Formose in Taiwan.
