Presented by: ESPRONCEDA – Institute of Art & Culture
Venue: Carrer d’Espronceda 326, Nau 5, 08027 Barcelona
Opening and artist talk: Thursday, 9 July 2026 · 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM
Artist Talk: Thursday, 9 July · 7:00 – 7:30 PM
Register here
A collaborative VR installation exploring water, energy and the digital world
Within the framework of the 4th edition of NUBIA Labs 2026, under the theme Spatial Computing and the Transversal Power of Digital Art
ESPRONCEDA – Institute of Art & Culture presents Spinning in Fluid Dreams, an immersive art project by Geneva-based artist and curator Nacoca Ko, combining physical sculpture, virtual reality environments and soundscapes to explore the transformations at work between water, energy and the digital world.
Initiated in 2022 by a collective of Switzerland-based artists and curators, Spinning in Fluid Dreams takes the hydroelectric power stations of the Swiss landscape as its starting point to interrogate the flows of energy sustaining both ecological life and our increasingly digital existences. Throughout the project, participating artists installed sculptures at hydroelectric sites, captured through 360° imaging and 3D digital scanning, which were then transformed into immersive virtual worlds where the physical and the digital intersect.
At the centre of the project lies an interactive VR world composed of 360° captures and 3D-scanned sculptures installed at hydroelectric power stations across Switzerland. Visitors travel through these layered landscapes, encountering sculptural apparitions and soundscapes that respond to movement. Its circular orientation mirrors the rhythm of the turbines. A data-generated hydrological map of Switzerland serves as a navigational framework, reimagining water systems as poetic models for online networking.
Spinning in Fluid Dreams explores how systems of power and perception are shaped by a fluid ontology between nature and technology, the analogue and the virtual, the human and the nonhuman. Water flows through turbines to power the digital world; virtual environments replicate or extend physical landscapes; and sculptures act as natural forms and technological interfaces at once.
The project includes a VR headset environment and a web-based immersive space, and can be presented as a standalone VR installation or extended to include physical elements. The presentation at ESPRONCEDA also incorporates original sculptures by Nacoca Ko.
Artist Talk
On the occasion of the opening, Thursday 9 July at 7:00 PM, Nacoca Ko will offer an open conversation about the creative process behind Spinning in Fluid Dreams, her artistic practice and the role of the virtual in contemporary art experience. The event will take place in the exhibition space during the opening.
About the Artist and Curators
Nacoca Ko is an artist and curator based in Geneva, Switzerland, working across sculpture, moving image, performance and virtual environments. Engaging with nonhuman and artificial intelligence, her work explores how technological systems reshape the personal psyche, collective consciousness and the environment.
Through her virtual worlding practice, Ko creates immersive environments where digital and physical realities intersect. Using VR, AR and online platforms, she investigates how attention and perception shift within these hybrid spaces. Sculpting with polymers and concrete, she examines the materials humans leave behind — those that persist long after our disappearance. At the edge of Singularity — where prediction gives way to uncertainty — Ko turns to ritual and mythopoetic speculation as a way of grounding, positioning the human as a fragile conduit between the natural, the technological and the unknown. Her recent projects include exhibitions at the Museu Futuros – Arte e Tecnologia (Rio de Janeiro, 2025), Museu Eva Klabin (Rio de Janeiro), Art Genève and Photo Basel, among other international contexts.
Antoine Félix Bürcher is a Swiss sculptor working with fused glass and altered materials to construct layered temporal strata. He has participated in the Werkschau at Museum Haus Konstruktiv (Zurich) and the Swiss Triennial of Sculpture, Bad RagARTz (2024), and is recipient of the Prix Arts Visuels Vaud (2025).
Monic Unser is a Swiss curator and art historian whose recent institutional projects include Plattform25 at CAN Centre d’art Neuchâtel (2025) and prior editions at Kunstmuseum Appenzell. She is Assistant Curator at Cabaret Voltaire Zurich, where she develops research-driven exhibitions and performance-based programmes engaging feminist histories, archival practices and contemporary experimental art.
About NUBIA Labs
Spinning in Fluid Dreams is presented within the framework of NUBIA Labs 2026, ESPRONCEDA’s professional incubation and support programme dedicated to projects in digital art and spatial computing, including XR technologies (AR/VR/MR), creative artificial intelligence, real-time interactive installations and immersive environments.
In its fourth edition, under the theme Spatial Computing and the Transversal Power of Digital Art, the programme drives projects at the intersection of art, technology and participation. Spinning in Fluid Dreams fully embodies this vision by transforming the physical landscape and energy infrastructure into collective virtual experience.
Press Contact
Maria Rubies
maria.rubies@espronceda.net
+34 607 639 552
www.espronceda.net
