The Compass
by Hollow
2023
Cross-reality intervention
The Compass is a cross-reality game where you can get a behind-the-scenes look at Aura, an immersive theater piece by Hollow (Viktor Szeri, Tamás Páll, and Gyula Muskovics), in which we examine the relationship between art and reality and the world-making power of imagination.
By entering the game on the link below, you will be introduced to three virtual portals, which we assembled from digital and physical objects, characters, and documents from different iterations of Aura and from the journey that led us there.
Along the way, through a series of residencies and research trips, we befriended underground communities in Georgia, Hungary, and Poland. We chose these countries because we were curious about how queer and other minority groups resist the hostile political atmosphere that characterizes these places nowadays.
Our mission, on the one hand, was to understand the world-making practices of these communities. On the other hand, we wanted to gain a better understanding of our own group. We shaped our journey toward this fictional world, which we would eventually build together, as a multi-month game with the ultimate goal of uniting in a collective body.
We tried to function as one entity and experimented with ancient and modern techniques of decision-making, journaling, divination, and somatic practices to guide us along the way.
Throughout the game, we developed three subplots that represent the three worlds we had to pass through before reaching our final destination: the world/artwork called Aura. The Compass is a tool that enables you to take a glimpse into these otherwise invisible places.
*Please note that The Compass works best on smartphones that support modern Augmented Reality (ARKit & ARCore)
*The Compass was commissioned in 2023 by ifa Berlin as part of the digital art project Are You For Real? and is featured in the project’s physical iterations across South America in 2025–2026 at institutions, including Museo De Artes Decorativas in Montevideo and Museo Emilio Caraffa in Cordóba.
