Category Archives: cultures

One big family: Onassis and the intersection of culture, technology and art

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The Onassis Foundation has a big mission: to be a catalyst and embrace constant innovation and creative disruptions that will lead to a better society. And while this is a tall mission for any cultural organization, for the past 50 years, Onassis has formed a constellation of programmes and initiatives to nurture, inspire and challenge thinkers and makers to work and experiment in every art sector. And this investment in people and artists has also paid off in the new media industry – nearly every immersive festival or programme these days has at least one piece emerging from Onassis’ orbit.

Alongside Onassis Stegi, the dynamic space for cultural creativity, the foundation’s stream dedicated towards technology began in 2017 with the opening of the Digital Innovation department. To map the work of Onassis is less like a family tree and more like a bush, with one branch growing into or around another. But several things unite all the strands – the desire to experiment at the intersection of art and technology, and the priority of feeding into and building an ecosystem that serves the artist from idea to exhibition; an integrated space to learn, make and grow.

Within the cosmos of the digital and innovation work are several programmes and spaces based in Athens, Greece and New York, USA, serving both Greek and international artists. “We are interested in artists’ ideas, not their ID,” explains Panagiotakou. The ONX summer school, which just wrapped, brings together creative professionals, students and businesses to explore technology, culture and worldbuilding. Onassis Ready art space, which plans to open in Fall 2025, will serve as a factory of ideas, the home of Onassis ONX and AIR, as well as a performance and exhibition space.

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originally published on XR Must

“You Can Cheat on Reality”: Emeline Courcier on Her Immersive Artwork ‘Burn From Absence’

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For her immersive artwork Burn From Absence, artist Emeline Courcier creates an archive where there was none. Using artificial intelligence, she recreates a family album, visualizing and verifying a history that has been hidden, documenting it from her perspective. In the four-channel installation, digitally created images illustrate an audio track layering her family members’ memories of life in Laos, the ‘Vietnam’ war, and new beginnings in France. She produced it during an immersive residency at the Phi Centre in Montreal, which is also serving as the work’s distributor.

While AI usually mines and perpetuates the dominant narrative, Courcier completely upends that, building an archive that is a reckoning and a reclaiming and, despite its AI-creation, very real. After its premiere at IDFA last November, where it won the DocLab Special Mention for Digital Storytelling, Documentary spoke to Courcier about truth, archives, and working with deeply personal material.

Did you always intend to use AI to recreate these memories?

 I think using AI is really the core of the project, but how I treated it really evolved during the process.

In 2023, I had heard about AI, but never used it before. I was opposed to it at first, as a lot of artists were—but I was kind of curious at the same time, because what I like is the fact that you can cheat on reality. 

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originally published on Documentary

“I Will Become My Own Institution”: Alaa Minawi Discusses His Immersive Installation ‘The Liminal’

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Alaa Minawi’s The Liminal gives an alternative definition of “immersive” from the typical technological, digital one. In his practice, the Palestinian-Lebanese-Dutch interdisciplinary artist explores the possibilities of merging installation and performance art. The Liminal—the first part of his speculative series about Arabfuturism—is a 3.5-meter wall with 24 speakers placed inside, programmed to take the audience on a listening journey.

What seems like a simple white wall is actually a repository of stories of people excluded from traditional power structures, who in turn claim their own spaces and communities “inside the wall.” The piece calls guests to actively listen and bear witness as they move along the wall following the voices, drawing their own physical performance. 

The piece premiered as a work-in-progress at IDFA’s DocLab last year, where it won a Special Jury Award for Immersive Non-Fiction. In an expanded version, which premiered at Spring Performing Arts Festival Utrecht in May 2025, Manawi shifted the documentary stories to fictionalized expressions of reality. Those four stories are written by him and Lebanese writer Raafat Majzoub, three of which are inspired by the original interviews. The last expands on a text previously written by Ibrahim Ibrahim Nehm. Of this exhibit, Minawi said, “I wanted to talk about what has happened, directly, about the genocide and our Arab reality. It was very difficult to find the language, until eventually, I felt that poetic, philosophical language is the best way to deal with what is happening.”

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originally published on Documentary

In Libya, sheep heads are a side dish

“So, I read about a specialty – bazin. Can I get that anywhere?”

I was in Tripoli, Libya, where we were running a video workshop with kids from around the country. The logistics for each workshop were different, and for this one, the organizer enlisted a rotating crew of work colleagues to serve as translators. I liked this set up, because it meant that we got to know a group of local young men and women during our time there.

That day, during a break, I was talking to Nabeel, who was built like a bodyguard but whose face welcomed you with a smile.

Libya_first

First stage of bazin, with lamb.

“You know bazin?” he asked, surprised.

I explained that I was pretty obsessed with food, and for each trip, even before learning about the politics of a place, I would research the food. Food, of course, is such a part of a places’s culture. And this way I would know what to expect during the trip and what specialties I might want to try to find.

“Well, that’s one of those home-cooked dishes,” Nabeel continued, explaining that it was something that was cooked by hand, and consumed communally. “Most restaurants won’t serve it because you eat with your hands and you only want to do that with people you trust.”

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