The Plaza Centre Cinéma invites you to discover an immersive experience combining virtual reality and iconic film scenes. An original project that goes beyond the screen, offering visitors the chance to rediscover, within a 300-square-meters space, a series of cult movies scenes reconstructed in mixed reality using a technology unique in the world. From 29 January to 1 February 2026, at the Art Genève fair in Palexpo.
“Le Plaza steps through the screen” is a tribute to the power of moving images—their fragility, their illusory nature, and their ability to move us as they recombine into pixels. Premiered at Art Genève 2026, this new mixed reality artwork invites the audience to pass through a series of virtual portals and enter emblematic fragments of cinema history, from Gaspar Noé to Ursula Meier and Andreï Tarkovski. Across more than 300 m², visitors walk through cinematic worlds reconstructed from iconic sequences—from black and white to psychedelic, from fantasy to drama. The image becomes a substance to be explored.
Designed by Geneva-based architects Damien Greder and Yony Santos and Zurich-based designer Simon Husslein, the project is the result of two years of research into an innovative digital process that meticulously transforms long takes into immersive sets and environments. A subtle and poetic approach to conceive a cinema without seats, barriers or distance. All experienced through free roaming, enabled by mixed reality that overlays virtual elements onto physical space.
The digital process employed, Gaussian Splatting, is a recent 3D reconstruction technology that transforms images or filmed sequences into navigable three-dimensional environments with a fluid and realistic rendering. Unlike traditional 3D techniques, this approach reconstructs space using millions of visual points—also known as “particle clouds”—each carrying information on colour, depth, and transparency. The scenes are then optimised for display in a VR headset.
On the eve of the reopening of the Plaza Centre Cinéma, the artwork questions the future of the seventh art in the digital age: our modes of consumption, the transformation of the medium, and the place of the body within the cinematic experience. Pixels dance and recombine to rethink projection as a total space and to offer a collective, multidisciplinary exploration. By presenting this work at Art Genève, the future Plaza Centre Cinéma affirms its desire to weave connections between different artistic expressions and to resonate with the vitality of both the local and international cultural scene.
BIOGRAPHIES
Damien GREDER
Architect, he works on the relationship between spaces and digital realities. He is co-founder of the Geneva-based experimental platform data-room.xyz. He is a PhD candidate at the IHEID and HEAD – Genève (HES-SO).
Simon HUSSLEIN
Designer, he develops immersive installations, spatial concepts, and objects. He is co-founder of BEYOND.PLACE and professor in the Interior Design Department at HEAD – Genève (HES-SO).
Yony SANTOS
Architect, he designs projects and scenographies combining real and virtual spaces. He is co-founder of the Geneva-based experimental platform data-room.xyz. He is Head of Education and Digital Innovation at espazium AG.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Duration: 18 minutes
Language: French / English
Age: 16+ / 12+ when accompanied
Opening hours
Thursday 29 January 2026 12 pm – 7 pm
Friday 30 January 2026 12 pm – 8 pm
Saturday 31 January 2026 12 pm – 8 pm
Sunday 1 February 2026 12 pm – 7 pm
Address:
Palexpo
Route François-Peyrot 30
1218 Le Grand-Saconnex
Medias contact: Francesca Serra, fserra@fondation-plaza.ch, +41 22 522 82 85
Photo credit: Mathilde Agius