The Gate, a Second Life / real life installation produced by Yannick Antoine and Yves Bernard, is currently showing at the Broelmuseum, Kortrijk Gallery in Belgium (in RL) and at Odyssey (in SL), as part of the Fantastic Illusions exhibition which itself seems to be part of the Europalia International Arts Festival.

The Gate is essentially a:

junction point, a door between the two worlds and two representation spaces. Basically, it is a simple window between both worlds where Real Life (RL) users and SL users see each other, can meet and interact. A view of the SL Gate is permanently projected in the real life venue; when an SL user with his/her avatar comes in front of The Gate in SL, it is visible in the real public space; when one arrives physically in front of the door in the public space, he/she becomes visible in SL and can interact with the SL users currently in front.

The work is in many ways a reference to Telematic works, such as Hole in Space by Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, from the late 70′s early 80′s which connected geographically distant places. Here the connection is between two different forms of ‘space’.

The exhibition will run until the 14th of February and during that time:

People, avatars and performance artists are kindly invited to come, perform and interact at The Gate, both in Real Life and in Second Life.