ÅTERFÖDELSEN / REBIRTH – a unique XR experience at MUNCH

Oslo, May 2026

Audiences are invited into a sensory universe where art, technology and emotion converge. This weekend, visitors were able to step inside a work of art rather than simply observe it. At MUNCH, the XR experience ÅTERFÖDELSEN / REBIRTH was presented, where music, poetry, spatial sound and technology merged into a physical and digital experience developed by Silvana Imam and Paula Strunden.

MUNCH invited Swedish musician and poet Silvana Imam and interdisciplinary German XR artist Paula Strunden to develop a new commissioned work as part of the EU-funded research project XTREME. The result is an immersive XR (extended reality) experience in which the audience themselves become an active part of the work. The experience was presented on 15 and 16 May 2026 in the Festival Hall at MUNCH.

In ÅTERFÖDELSEN / REBIRTH, audiences move through a sensory landscape of music, poetry, visual elements and spatial sound. The work is divided into three parts – birth, love, and death/rebirth – and explores different emotional states through an intense and physical experience. The artists themselves describe the work as “an espresso shot of life”.

“We live in a world of extremes that is not easy to navigate. In ÅTERFÖDELSEN you get to experience a range of emotions for 15 minutes, an espresso shot of a brutal and beautiful life and death. With this project I wanted the visitors to separate their bodies from this world and put their souls and empathy in focus. We are fighting a war for empathy." says Silvana Imam

“ÅTERFÖDELSEN brings our physical and virtual worlds closer together, using heat, wind and tactile materials, so that visitors can feel their body and the emotional landscape it carries. To me, rebirth is recognising this embodied landscape as an inner compass, through which we choose, again and again, how to confront our life," adds Paula Strunden.

Using Apple Vision Pro headsets, participants move through a universe where the physical and digital worlds merge. The experience engages both body and senses, inviting audiences to explore new ways of experiencing art.

This marks the first collaboration between Silvana Imam and Paula Strunden. Together, they combine Imam’s powerful musical and poetic expression with Strunden’s work in embodied virtuality and spatial design

The project forms part of XTREME, a European research initiative in which MUNCH is one of 14 partners. Through the project, the museum functions as a living laboratory for the development and testing of new art forms in dialogue with audiences. Experiences and feedback from the presentations are actively used in the continued development of both the artwork and research into immersive audience experiences.

MUNCH Young Collective has played a central role in the development of the project. The collective contributes to exploring how younger audiences engage with new art forms, while also giving young adults practical experience in arts and cultural work through participation in the museum’s projects.

What makes the project particularly unique is that audiences are taking part in a process presentation of a prototype – a work that is still under development. The audience therefore also becomes an important part of the artistic and research-based process.

Did you miss ÅTERFÖDELSEN / REBIRTH? Register your interest by sending an email to selena.sefany@munchmuseet.no to receive an invitation to a new exclusive presentation this autumn.

Read more about the XTREME project.