Marina Orlova presented Human.VPN, a work-in-progress performance exploring the growing disconnect between physical presence and emotional location in an increasingly networked world. Inspired by the metaphor of a VPN, a technology used to mask one’s digital location, the performance examined how constant exposure to distant events through social media and online news can create feelings of disorientation, detachment, and simultaneous belonging to multiple places at once.

During the presentation, two dancers interacted with a live-operated digital map projection, creating shifting trajectories between physical, digital, and imagined spaces. Through movement, technology, and audience association, the work reflected on migration, border politics, online information flows, and the emotional impact of witnessing events from afar.

Rather than reinforcing the ideological divisions often amplified by digital platforms, Human.VPN proposed a shared space of uncertainty. The performance functioned as a collective geography self-study, inviting audiences to reflect on experiences of displacement, connection, and not knowing as a form of togetherness.

The presentation concluded with an artist talk moderated by independent writer, art critic, and curator Sanneke Huisman.

Marina Orlova (1987) is an Amsterdam-based dance and theatre maker, tech dramaturg, and AI researcher. Originally trained in sociology in Moscow before studying experimental choreography at the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) in Amsterdam, she develops interdisciplinary works at the intersection of performance, technology, and social inquiry.

Her practice explores human–AI relationships, mental health, migration, and border politics. Combining choreographic methodologies with technological tools and sociological perspectives, Orlova creates performances that investigate contemporary societal challenges through the lenses of absurdism, tragicomedy, and autofiction.

This program is part of The Grey Space’s residency program House Guests in which we facilitate the interaction between a work, the space and the audience. Each House Guest has a week-long mini-residency, culminating in a public event.

This edition of House Guests is supported by the municipality of The Hague.