It is sometimes complex to separate the personal work from the commissioned, because the two overlap and feed off each other. Besides, Mélanie Courtinat is given on a regular basis by institutions or even brands a complete "carte blanche". This selection therefore presents her most unrestricted projects, and those that resonate the most with her work as an artist.
ALL UNSAVED PROGRESS WILL BE LOST
Virtual reality, 6DoF, 10’
YEAR 2022
ART DIRECTION, PRODUCTION, DEVELOPMENT Mélanie Courtinat
ORIGINAL MUSIC Yatoni
INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION Diversion Cinema
Certain historical events defy representation; they offer no analogies, no precedents in experience. These are catastrophes of a new kind, for which our eyes, our ears, and even our language remain unprepared.
Through the story of a survivor who chose not to evacuate her home, All Unsaved Progress Will Be Lost is a sensorial journey that explores our deepest fears and resilience in the face of unimaginable horrors. Voluntarily confined to a space rendered inhospitable, she recounts her vision of the disaster in a surreal landscape made of concrete and fog, a portrayal of a land where no return to origin is possible.
As the calamity remains undisclosed till the final moments, the looming threat remains silent and unnamed, pushing the viewers to confront their own anxieties about possible future catastrophes.
After premiering in 2022 at the Venice Biennale as part of the Immersive Selection, the project went on to be presented at over twenty exhibitions and festivals worldwide. That same year, it received the Best VR Award at Animafest Zagreb.
Virtual reality, 6DoF, 10’
YEAR 2022
ART DIRECTION, PRODUCTION, DEVELOPMENT Mélanie Courtinat
ORIGINAL MUSIC Yatoni
INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION Diversion Cinema
Certain historical events defy representation; they offer no analogies, no precedents in experience. These are catastrophes of a new kind, for which our eyes, our ears, and even our language remain unprepared.
Through the story of a survivor who chose not to evacuate her home, All Unsaved Progress Will Be Lost is a sensorial journey that explores our deepest fears and resilience in the face of unimaginable horrors. Voluntarily confined to a space rendered inhospitable, she recounts her vision of the disaster in a surreal landscape made of concrete and fog, a portrayal of a land where no return to origin is possible.
As the calamity remains undisclosed till the final moments, the looming threat remains silent and unnamed, pushing the viewers to confront their own anxieties about possible future catastrophes.
After premiering in 2022 at the Venice Biennale as part of the Immersive Selection, the project went on to be presented at over twenty exhibitions and festivals worldwide. That same year, it received the Best VR Award at Animafest Zagreb.
THE SIREN
Video game, immersive installation + virtual reality
YEAR 2024 for the game / 2025 for the VR
DIRECTION Mélanie Courtinat
DEVELOPMENT Mélanie Courtinat, Odran Jobin, Alpha Rats, Alex Sinh Nguyen
VR DEVELOPMENT Mélanie Courtinat, Nino Filiu, Odran Jobin
MUSIC Inès Chérifi at Færies Records, Yatoni
INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION Diversion Cinema
The Siren is a digital exploration that questions the traditional conventions of video games. The project exists in two forms: an installative version played on a screen with a game controller, and an immersive virtual reality experience.
The work investigate the meaning we assign to actions within a game, the motivations behind our playful engagements, and aims to introduce an art exhibition audience to the medium. This inclusive approach is designed to be accessible to everyone, including newcomers, while also providing an additional level of understanding for those already familiarized with video games.
When showcased as an installation the piece features accessible gameplay and contemplative cinematics, offering a rich visual experience for those who prefer to watch. As in the virtual reality version, hands free interactions add a new immersive layer, allowing visitors to engage with the work in a more embodied and intuitive way.
The Siren begins like many games do: you control a heroine clad in shimmering armor and guided by an omniscient narrator, seemingly tasked with rescuing a damsel in distress. But before you can embark on this “main quest,” you’re ordered to complete a minor one: collecting glowing seashells scattered across a quiet beach at dusk. This detour is not just a mechanic, but a metaphor. As the game unfolds, the narrator’s presence intensifies. Their instructions become more insistent, more authoritarian, pushing the player to obey, to perform, to stay on track. This growing take over invites reflection on our relationship to authority within games, and beyond them: Why do we follow orders? What happens when we stop?
The Siren draws a parallel between the logic of “side quests” (like gathering hundreds of Korok seeds in Breath of the Wild), and the way we fill our real lives with tasks, projects, and goals to distract ourselves from the inevitability of death. Learning a new skill, optimizing routines, falling in love, we keep ourselves busy, hoping that purpose will emerge from repetition. These are rituals we invent to trick the void.
At its core, The Siren also questions the narrative of romantic salvation, the belief that by “saving the princess,” or by chasing the idea of an “other half” we might finally be whole. That love might protect us from the absurdity of existence. That if we are the main character, there must be a story, and it must lead somewhere. The player’s path is guided through quiet decisions, shaping multiple possible endings. None are final. The “good ending” is tough to find.
The Siren doesn’t ask you to win, it invites you to drift. To wonder what it means to keep going when the quest no longer makes sense.
The Siren was first commissioned by the Pully Art Museum, under the curatorship of Victoria Mühlig.
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Video game, immersive installation + virtual reality
YEAR 2024 for the game / 2025 for the VR
DIRECTION Mélanie Courtinat
DEVELOPMENT Mélanie Courtinat, Odran Jobin, Alpha Rats, Alex Sinh Nguyen
VR DEVELOPMENT Mélanie Courtinat, Nino Filiu, Odran Jobin
MUSIC Inès Chérifi at Færies Records, Yatoni
INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION Diversion Cinema
The Siren is a digital exploration that questions the traditional conventions of video games. The project exists in two forms: an installative version played on a screen with a game controller, and an immersive virtual reality experience.
The work investigate the meaning we assign to actions within a game, the motivations behind our playful engagements, and aims to introduce an art exhibition audience to the medium. This inclusive approach is designed to be accessible to everyone, including newcomers, while also providing an additional level of understanding for those already familiarized with video games.
When showcased as an installation the piece features accessible gameplay and contemplative cinematics, offering a rich visual experience for those who prefer to watch. As in the virtual reality version, hands free interactions add a new immersive layer, allowing visitors to engage with the work in a more embodied and intuitive way.
The Siren begins like many games do: you control a heroine clad in shimmering armor and guided by an omniscient narrator, seemingly tasked with rescuing a damsel in distress. But before you can embark on this “main quest,” you’re ordered to complete a minor one: collecting glowing seashells scattered across a quiet beach at dusk. This detour is not just a mechanic, but a metaphor. As the game unfolds, the narrator’s presence intensifies. Their instructions become more insistent, more authoritarian, pushing the player to obey, to perform, to stay on track. This growing take over invites reflection on our relationship to authority within games, and beyond them: Why do we follow orders? What happens when we stop?
The Siren draws a parallel between the logic of “side quests” (like gathering hundreds of Korok seeds in Breath of the Wild), and the way we fill our real lives with tasks, projects, and goals to distract ourselves from the inevitability of death. Learning a new skill, optimizing routines, falling in love, we keep ourselves busy, hoping that purpose will emerge from repetition. These are rituals we invent to trick the void.
At its core, The Siren also questions the narrative of romantic salvation, the belief that by “saving the princess,” or by chasing the idea of an “other half” we might finally be whole. That love might protect us from the absurdity of existence. That if we are the main character, there must be a story, and it must lead somewhere. The player’s path is guided through quiet decisions, shaping multiple possible endings. None are final. The “good ending” is tough to find.
The Siren doesn’t ask you to win, it invites you to drift. To wonder what it means to keep going when the quest no longer makes sense.
The Siren was first commissioned by the Pully Art Museum, under the curatorship of Victoria Mühlig.
I’M NOT TOUGH ENOUGH TO BE ONLINE ___ ÉDITORIAL MAGAZINE MAGAZINE
CGI images, 3D scanYEAR 2023
ART DIRECTION Mélanie Courtinat, Salomé Chatriot
CGI Mélanie Courtinat
STYLING Salomé Poloudenny
3D SCANS Pierre Moulin, Nino Filiu
MUA Nora Le Dour
CHAINMAIL, JEWELRY Milari Barker (Membrane)
Conceived by Mélanie Courtinat and Salomé Chatriot, this fashion series for Issue 40 of Magazine magazine explores the worlds of these two artists through images featuring signature elements from their respective practices.
Using their own bodies as models, the artists were 3D scanned, allowing for their transposition into a virtual universe integrated within Unreal Engine video game software. The sets are entirely CGI, designed not to achieve photorealism but to evoke a sense of ambiguity, celebrating the scans’ imperfections rather than concealing them.
TEN LANDS
Video game, interactive videoclipYEAR 2020
ART DIRECTION, CGI, PRODUCTION Mélanie Courtinat
ORIGINAL MUSIC, SOUND DESIGN Yatoni
Ten Lands is a hybrid format that oscillates between an interactive video clip and a video game. Each level visually illustrates one of the ten ambient music tracks from Yatoni‘s latest album.
Ten Lands opens, in an underlying way, a double reflection that crosses both the video game industry and the music industry. This reflection emerged at a time when music could no longer inhabit public spaces and gatherings were forbidden. Far from clubs and concerts, new spaces and ways of experiencing music began to emerge.
With Ten Lands, the artist seeks to bridge the disciplines of music videos and video games. By merging the interactive format of one and the stakes of the other, Ten Lands is a cross-genre format in which each sound composition unfolds in relation to a specific virtual place. Landscapes and sounds happen and resonate simultaneously.
From then on, Ten Lands raises the issue of spatiality when listening to an album. Here the logics of unfolding the musical titles differ from those already in place, especially on streaming platforms such as Spotify or Soundcloud. Indeed, where one click is enough to start the next track, Ten Lands requires a journey.
By including the notion of space, distance and thus chronology, Ten Lands initiates a new logic of filiation when listening to a music album; close to the one, in particular, that animates the vinyl record. In fact, in the same way that the vinyl record requires listening to music one after the other, this new format requires that steps be taken in order to unroll the musical thread, unlike platforms that follow a logic of "deferred" listening, and the possibility of a disorderly discover. Here, this format pushes and gives you the opportunity to literally go through Yatoni's album.
Furthermore, from another perspective, the artist deliberately chose not to personalize every aspect of the experience. In Ten Lands, a single, enigmatic entity traverses the ten worlds. The avatar envisioned by the artist is defined by its anonymity: its thick, opaque metal armor conceals not only its face but any cues to its gender. Silent by nature, neither its voice nor its gait reveals any hint of its identity, making it impossible to discern distinct features or skin tone. In this way, the protagonist of Ten Lands stands as an inclusive figure, open for anyone to embody.
