City of Ash
We invite you to City of Ash – a game-based video-project.
What is it about?
City of Ash is an exploration of Esch-sur-Alzette through play — a search for cracks in reality, portals between worlds, and new ways of seeing the city – real and imagined.
For whom?
For the residents of Esch or people who spend significant amounts of time here (e.g. working). 16+
What kind of game do we play?
We create a Live Action Role Play (LARP) — a game where participants take on fictional roles, record their surroundings with smartphones, and collectively build a playful story of a double city.
When and where?
Two days in December 2025 (Saturday and Sunday). The game starts at COA space (Rue du Brill 24, Esch-sur-Alzette)
Are there any requirements?
No experience is required — only curiosity, imagination, and a smartphone.
What about video?
Shooting video with your phone is an important part of the gameplay. After the game a film will be edited using this material (More info about rights and participant fees in practical section).
How to register?
Please fill in this form: https://forms.gle/fUZHDc4vfKjqBQoM9
More details
City of Ash is a participatory, game-based video project that invites residents of Esch-sur-Alzette to imagine an alternative version of their city. Players move between two overlapping realities — the real city of Esch-sur-Alzette and the fictional City of Ash.
Using the video function of their smartphones, participants document their surroundings and narrate them from the perspective of their characters, exploring the borders, portals, and mirrors between both worlds.
Esch-sur-Alzette is the city that already exists. Ash is the city of possibility — a place that writes its own rules.
The world of Esch and Ash
The City of Ash and Esch-sur-Alzette and are interconnected. What happens there has consequences here. Between the two worlds and their populations lies a shifting boundary — connected by hidden portals that open through eye movement, light, and imagination.
Glanz
The Glanz are dwellers of Ash, the parallel city. Emotional, curious, and unpredictable, they act beyond rules and norms. Their presence flickers — not only in reflections, screens, and shadows. When the story begins, the Glanz forbiddenly cross the boundary of reality. They leave traces in Esch as they move through, sometimes fading — and pulling others toward their imaginative world.
Aen
The Aen live at the boundaries of Esch-sur-Alzette. They are the watchers, and guardians of the border between realities. With the idea to establish and keep their rules, they are observant and analytical by nature. In the beginning of the game they find out that the balance of the world is shaken. Striving to maintain the border between the real and the imagined, some wish to see what lies beyond.
Inspiration
You can draw inspiration from many fictional stories that blur the line between worlds — such as The City & the City by China Miéville or Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman — where history, fantasy and unwritten futures coexist beneath the surface of the everyday.
Practicals
- The participation in the larp is free.
- The event starts on Saturday at 12 and ends on Sunday in the evening. The game takes place in December; the exact dates will be announced on the 15th of November based on the choice of the signed up participants.
- The venue for the game is the city itself. Workshops and some events will happen in the spaces in the center of the city, but you are free to play on the streets, in your apartments, or anywhere else (as long as you are safe and the people around are not too much bothered :) ).
- Every language can be spoken in the game.
- During the game participants will shoot video with their smartphones. These recordings might be temporarily made public as part of the game environment and will later become part of the final film work, exhibited in an art space. All selected participants will receive a fee in recognition of the rights to use their video material.
- If you don’t have enough traffic for the uploading video or have another technical problem, we will assist to find a solution.