Intense virtual reality exhibit immerses Omaha art center visitors in horrors, chaos of migrant southern border crossing
CARNE y ARENA continues through Sept. 10 at KANEKO in Omaha
OMAHA
Conventional wisdom tells us you can never truly walk in another’s shoes.
So I took mine off, the shoes and the socks, set them aside before going into the powerful, immersive virtual reality experience on refugees at the southern border of the United States that will leave even the most unrendered of hearts melted — or should.
The ground-breaking KANEKO art center in Omaha’s Old Market places you in a solo experience in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Academy Award-winning CARNE y ARENA (Virtually present, Physically invisible).
Iñárritu’s earned directing honors for “The Revenant” and “Birdman” — and a special achievement Oscar for CARNE y ARENA.
In the Omaha experience, visitors enter the inspiring center and then make their way down a long hall at the exhibit to the entrance of the CARNE y ARENA. There, you head in, alone, to a shockingly cold detention room, take off your shoes and socks, and when an intense buzzer sounds, you open a door and enter a room with sand and rocks on the floor.
Soon, you are outfitted in a virtual reality backpack, goggles and headphones, and for 15 minutes you are there, in the desert at the border, as if you are a migrant. You are surrounded by other migrants of all ages, tired, frightened people. It’s quiet for a while, beautiful, and serene even.
Then the border patrol arrives and the experience is real. It’s terrifying and dehumanizing — which is the point of the exhibit — to build empathy.
The spotlights and noise, and eventually the firearms, appear. Then the yelling. The chaos.
And there are you, spinning around in the virtual reality get-up, tears streaming, heels stinging from rock scrapes.
And then it is over. You ate in the Old Market with its selection of restaurants and bars. The migrants, on the other hand, are still suffering in the desert and detention centers.
On Friday afternoon, I went through the exhibit after interviewing Amanda Kephart, the KANEKO’s community engagement and public program manager.
I’d never been in an immersive VR experience so the medium hit me first, followed by the emotional haymaker of the message in the all-too-real imagery of immigrant journey. I ducked many times, nearly walked to an actual wall (the KANEKO has part of the real border wall in the center), and reached out for the migrants, seeking to feel if they are real, wanting to help, to connect, only to nearly fall onto the rocks.
Kephart digested the experience in much the same way, she said.
“I feel like I should be doing so much more,” Kephart said. “I’m not saddened to the point of paralysis, I’m saddened to the point of action. And that’s what I wanted people to get.”
She added, “This is an awful feeling, it’s heavy, and it’s uncertain, and as a woman of color — I’m biracial so the world views me as a black woman,”
Kephart felt what she described as “white guilt” when going through the exhibit.
“Absolutely, why would I not, when everything that I read, all the books I have trained with, read for academic history studies are all written by white men,” she said.
Kephart said CARNE y ARENA is designed to get people to see the refugee border experience first-hand, not through political lenses. She’s seen it flip some thinking on immigration already.
The intense nature of the experience does come with warnings from KANEKO and the director:
CARNE y ARENA is a virtual reality work that is highly immersive and can feel extremely realistic, including experiences with firearms.
CARNE y ARENA is not recommended for individuals with claustrophobia, heart conditions, back conditions, a history of seizures, epilepsy, and/or sensitivity to flashing lights.
The exhibit and experience run through Sept. 10 in Omaha. Reserve a time, get tickets.
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Doug, this sounds like an amazing use of virtual reality. As you say, to walk in someone else's shoes - or lack thereof - can be life altering. Thanks for telling us about this.