Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Academy Award®-winning virtual reality experience CARNE Y ARENA (Virtually present, Physically invisible) explores the human condition of immigrants and refugees. 

CARNE y ARENA is a groundbreaking and immersive solo virtual reality experience designed for one visitor at a time to circulate while limiting interactions and respecting distances safely and comfortably. It will be open to the public Thursday - Sunday, 11 am to 8 pm CST. 

The experience is a twenty-minute solo journey centered around a multi-narrative virtual reality sequence based on true accounts of Central American and Mexican refugees. Lines between subject and bystander are blurred and bound together through state-of-the-art immersive technology as visitors walk in a vast, sand-filled space and witness a fragment of a refugee’s journey.

Called by critics “a must-see” and “genius” and described by attendees as “life-changing” and “powerful", CARNE Y ARENA is presented for the first time in Texas, after numerous sold-out runs in the U.S. and abroad.                                      

• "Mind-blowing." -Colorado Sun
• "Must-see." -La Presse
• "You come out of it changed, transformed." -Radio Canada
• "It's easily one of the most intense artistic experiences I've ever had. Genius." -The Denver Post
• "Inarritu and Lubezki have created a deeply affecting, emotionally engaging artwork in a new medium that will not soon be forgotten.” -Forbes

Originally presented at the 70th Cannes Film Festival, CARNE Y ARENA (Virtually present, Physically invisible) was the first VR experience ever chosen as part of the festival’s Official Selection. Iñárritu was also presented a special Oscar® by the Academy “in recognition of a visionary and powerful experience in storytelling.”

"During the making of this project, I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing many Mexican and Central American refugees," Iñárritu said. "Their life stories haunted me, so I invited some of them to collaborate with me on the project. My intention was to experiment with VR technology to explore the human condition in an attempt to break the dictatorship of the frame—within which things are just observed—and claim the space to allow the visitor to go through a direct experience walking in the immigrants' feet, under their skin, and into their hearts."

CARNE Y ARENA is produced by PHI Studio, Emerson Collective, Legendary Entertainment, and Fondazione Prada and presented in Dallas in association with the Nasher Sculpture Center and the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

The minimum age required is 13 years old.