I interviewed Joren Vandenbroucke about The Great Escape on Monday, September 1, 2025 at Venice Immersive in Venice, Italy.
Here is the story synopsis for The Great Escape:
- “In The Great Escape, the viewer arrives as the third of three geranium flowers stuck on the windowsill in the bare living room of Patrick, a lonely 38-year-old man. The geraniums are bored to death and constantly frustrated – with themselves, the windowsill, and Patrick. They long to see the world, but are literally rooted in place. Patrick, meanwhile, walks freely but never leaves the house, trapped in his own lonely routine. Every day starts the same: watering the plants, making coffee, feeding his goldfish, activating his roomba, collecting junk mail, then daydreaming by the window. The monotony gets shaken up when Patrick buys a smartphone to connect with the outside world. The geraniums secretly steal it and post a selfie in a plant swap group, where a woman named Sonja spots it. She convinces Patrick to swap the geraniums for her snake plant. The geraniums are thrilled as they venture outside with Patrick, until a chat with a dying bouquet of roses reveals the outside world isn’t so kind to plants. The ensuing existential crisis leads the plants to their near demise and ultimately to a new home with a rather familiar setting.“
Here are the contextual domains that are explored:
- Home [4], then using communications technologies with a cell phone and social media [3] to connect to someone else in the neighborhood [3]. Then going on a massive adventure. [9] For a human, it’s a short-distance travel [3], but for this geranium, it may feel like a completely exotic long-distance journey [9] relative to how often plants move around. “They long to see the world, but are literally rooted in place.”
Here is the Elemental Center of Gravity:
1st Center of Gravity of Emotional Presence: Very FUNNY! Narrative-driven, immersive animation. Surreal comedy genre. |
2nd Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: You embody a geranium who uses a phone to put themselves on an Online Marketplace and escape into another human owner. From one home to another via public tranportation. The rest of the world is mundane living rooms, a subway trip, and then getting to be outside facing the busy city street |
3rd Center of Gravity of Air Element / Mental and Social Presence: Dialogue. Single-player experience. But you have some virtual co-presence with other geraniums, as you are embodied as a geranium |
4th Center of Gravity of Earth Element / Environmental and Embodied Presence: I can’t recall if there were any explicit interactions other than being embodied as a geranium. If there were, then they just gated the narrative. May have been some phone interactions. Hard to remember |
Archetypal Themes and Character Explored:
- Tension between Boredom of Reality and the same daily routine and Grand Adventure and Excitement. “The geraniums are bored to death and constantly frustrated.” Some pretty brave and courageous acts to go on this adventure. Also fears around potential death associated with this adventure. “The geraniums are thrilled as they venture outside with Patrick, until a chat with a dying bouquet of roses reveals the outside world isn’t so kind to plants.” After the brush with death, then they enter their new home and a new but similar daily routine begins. “The ensuing existential crisis leads the plants to their near demise and ultimately to a new home with a rather familiar setting.”
Artist Statement:
- “At the core The Great Escape is about the boredom that comes with comfort. In this story a pair of houseplants are longing for a “great escape” from their daily dull routine, even though nothing is particularly wrong with this daily flow. On one hand the contradicting wishes and desires of the geraniums might seem amusing, but on the other hand they are relatable as well to people who harbour similar escapist dreams or experience certain inexplicable feelings of ennui. Fleeing a golden cage takes courage and learning to let go sometimes, as Patrick experiences in this story. Even then a safe return is not always guaranteed, like the geraniums find out. Still, there is beauty to be found in the ordinary aspects of life and the flow of daily existence.“
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Music: Fatality
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