DOKU the Self

Directed by Lu Yang

As the first narrative film, DOKU the Self, which premiered at this year’s Venice Biennale, introduces six virtual reincarnations of LuYang. Reminiscent of superheroes, gaming and anime characters, as well as deities and demons, these avatars embody different aspects of LuYang’s self. At the same time, each represents one of the six realms of samsara—the karmic wheel of life—and refers to the eternal cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. In LuYang’s work, Samsara takes on different forms: virtual landscapes that resemble worlds of experience in video games, or a kind of gigantic reincarnation roulette that can be controlled by the player with a video game console.