INVISIBLE FESTIVAL
THE 1ST AUGMENTED ART FESTIVAL IN THE HEART OF EUROPE DEDICATED TO SHEDDING LIGHT ON THE INVISIBLE FIGURES OF HISTORY
March 21
BELGIUM DISCOVERY TOUR with STEREOPSIA
March 22-23
#BRUXSLSART exhibition in Brussels
- Tour & Taxi with PRINTEMPS NUMÉRIQUE
March 24
“À NOUS L'HISTOIRE” workshop in Brussels - Espace Vanderborght Women in ART
A dive into the world of Avatars and artificial intelligence
The 1st augmented art festival in the heart of Europe dedicated to shedding light on the invisible figures of history (March 21-24, 2024).
Who are the Invisibles of European History? How can we use digital tools and artificial intelligence to give them a voice?
INVISIBLE Festival stimulates collective intelligence to provide innovative answers to these 2 questions.
The 2024 festival is based on the immersive #BRUXSLSART exhibition, but also on a rich B2B program combining technologies, archives and digital arts in a highly participative and decolonial dynamic.
The 2024 program highlights the many vibrant cultures of the African continent, as well as the African diasporas in Europe, through virtual works, video games and historical avatars.
This unique festival is organized by XR4heritage in collaboration with 3 host events: Pirntemps numérique, Women in Art and Stereopsia.
The B2B program - at the crossroads of technological and social innovation - builds bridges between worlds that don't usually meet or understand each other. The program is particularly aimed at :
● Culture, tourism and media professionals looking for innovative solutions to boost the participation and inclusiveness of their offers to the public.
● Creators, distributors and operators of digital solutions, metavers platforms and immersive installations.
● Producers, directors, scriptwriters and creators of new media content
● Artivists and digital arts professionals
● Archive managers and public institutions in charge of digitalization
● Researchers, academics and experts in XR, AI and WEB3.
The immersive #BRUXSLSART exhibition is open to all and free of charge - within the limits of available places.
B2B program
Accreditation to the B2B program gives access to the following activities during the 4 days of the Festival:
BELGIUM DISCOVERY TOUR + THE #BRUXSLSART EXHIBITION with premium access + THE #À NOUS L'HISTOIRE WORKSHOP.
BELGIAN DISCOVERY TOUR
What to expect
The Discovery tour is the perfect opportunity to build privileged relationships with representatives of the networks, hubs and clusters that support culture, media and tourism professionals in a high-impact digital transformation. With 3 stopovers, the journey will strengthen ties between Belgian and international innovators through exclusive visits, demonstrations and networking sessions. Each stop will feature a round table/demonstration for cross-sector inspiration and exchange.
HERITAGE AVATARS: An introduction to the potential of avatars and artificial intelligence to bring the past virtually to life in historical documentaries and fiction. Event 1 at Le GROW studio in Brussels with WALGA #media #avatars #gaming
COCREATION & SMART CITY: AI and augmented reality to enhance the region's assets and appeal Event 2 at MIC in Mons with Cluster TWIST TWIST #XR #IA #cocreation
ANIMATED ARCHIVES : obstacles and opportunities linked to the appropriation of archives by digital artists and XR-IA solution providers. Event 3 at CLICK in Mons with KIKK Galaxy #artnumérique #archives #IA
*See agenda for detailed program. B2B ticket includes round-trip transportation from Brussels.
#BRUXSLSART EXHIBITION with premium access
9AM to 6:30PM: Friday, March 22
10AM to 6PM: Saturday 23rd
INVISIBLE Festival welcomes you to SHED 2 Bis, at the heart of Printemps Numérique, the leading digital event in the Brussels-Capital Region (5,000 visitors expected in 48 hours).
Premium access to the #BRUXSLSART exhibition gives you exclusive benefits and access:
- guided tour of the CIRCUIT AUGMENTÉ
- private tour of the NOIRE immersive installation in the BLACK BOX
- private tour of the HALL OF FAME experience
- private events in the NETWORKING AREA
The AUGMENTED ART circuit
Art overlaying reality
#BRUXSLS.ART, the largest gallery of augmented AR(T) in the heart of Europe, is delighted to offer you a 10-stage artistic journey through the prestigious Tour & Taxi site: 10 digital works to discover in XXL, overlaying reality, multiple narratives around African cultures and the diaspora.
*See agenda for detailed .program. B2B ticket includes guided tour ticket (attendance confirmation required - according to availability).
The immersive installation NOIRE
The unknown life of Claudette Colvin
After its official opening in 2023 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, NOIRE is coming to Belgium for the first time.
NOIRE, a moving narrative experience that, through augmented reality glasses, immerses visitors in 1950s Alabama, at the height of the civil rights struggle. NOIRE, at the crossroads of digital arts and live performance, is a powerful tool for educating and raising awareness about racism and social inequality.
An immersive installation made by Stéphane Foenkinos and Pierre-Alain Giraud Based on Noire, la vie méconnue de Claudette Colvin by Tania de Montaigne published by Grasset 2015 with Tania de Montaigne.
*See agenda for detailed . program. B2B ticket includes entry to private tour (attendance confirmation required - according to availability).
The HALL OF FAME experience
Avatars of the Invisibles Club
*See agenda for detailed .program. B2B ticket includes guided tour ticket (attendance confirmation required - according to availability).
The NETWORKING area
The Invisible Festival HQ at Printemps Numérique
The networking area is organized around 5 B2B sections with a wide range of inspiring projects for innovation in the cultural tourism and media sectors. The Lounge will be the meeting place and information point for everything you need to know about INVISIBLE Festival conferences and events at Printemps Numérique.
Join us to meet:
- Our international experts from Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Quebec and France.
- Exhibitors from the 4 regional sections: Brussels-Capital Region, Wallonia, Africa & Quebec
- “À NOUS L'HISTOIRE” experts: international historians, museums, solution providers and international content creators, gathered in the heart of Europe to co-create a platform for innovation in the service of heritage.
- Representatives of our partner distribution networks
*See agenda for detailed program.
The B2B ticket includes admission to all 3 networking events (attendance confirmation required - according to availability).
Premium advantage:
Access to private events organized in The INVISIBLE Festival NETWORKING area around Printemps Numérique conferences and events.
From 12:30PM to 2:00PM on Friday March 22: DIGITAL INTER/SECTION networking with a distinguished guest: Mme Marie-Colline Leroy – State Secretary for Gender Equality, Equal Opportunities and Diversity.
From 6:30PMto 9:00PM on Friday March 22: INVISIBLE Festival opening night with our prestigious patron: Ms. Euzhan Palcy - film pioneer and activist against racism and discrimination + invitation to the PRINTEMPS NUMÉRIQUE preview evening at the Maison de la Poste including a preview screening of an RTBF documentary about artificial intelligence.
From 12:30PM to 2:00PM on Saturday March 23: XR4EUROPE networking with artists, digital creators and members of the ARTECOM.IO ecosystem and the BXL ART NFT gallery.
#À NOUS L'HISTOIRE WORKSHOP
À NOUS L'HISTOIRE WORKSHOP :Sunday March 24, 2024
The #À NOUS L'HISTOIRE workshop is the central theme of the INVISIBLE Festival. Indeed, the festival is a manifesto for the creation of Europe's first innovation center for heritage: À NOUS L'HISTOIRE. A platform for REVISITING THE PAST, QUESTIONING THE PRESENT and IMAGINING DESIRABLE FUTURES through a rich program of activities (culture, tourism, media) based on the design and animation of a catalog of historical avatars.
To further explore the ethical, technological, legal and artistic issues involved in the À NOUS L'HISTOIRE project, the members of the expert committee will be organizing throughout the festival (online + at Printemps Numérique):
- a citizen consultation to define who the INVISIBLES of History are, and why new technologies should be used to bring them back to life,
- a collection of data from technological experts to draw up a catalog of interoperable solutions to facilitate the creation, distribution and interaction of avatars both by the public and for the public.
INVISIBLE Festival 2024 celebrates the final year of the International Decade for People of African Descent, whose theme is "People of African Descent: Recognition, Justice and Development".
The festival's programming aims to promote, unite and engage participants and supporters of 8 projects initiated by XR4heritage in 2023 around the À NOUS L'HISTOIRE project:
A competition dedicated to the valorization of female and African historical figures - organized with the support of 3 sponsors (the Integrated Police, the BXL ART NFT gallery and WEB3 experts ACEGOOG & METALAW) to spark public interest around a selection of archives related to colonization, Pan-Africanism, the Women's Rights League, the Cité Mondiale and, more broadly, the Cinquantenaire site in Brussels and the city of Mons (in collaboration with the Charleroi Museum of Photography, the Mundaneum and AfricaMuseum).
A working group set up to list the needs to be met by the project to create an innovation platform for heritage in the heart of Europe. The first session was organized in February 2023 as part of the BRIGHT FESTIVAL professional meetings, and was attended by representatives of BRUSSELS MUSEUM, UNESCO, ICOM, VISIT BRUSSELS, MIIL UCL, TECHNOCITÉ, FWB Patrimoine... as well as our international partners, including HUB MONTRÉAL (Quebec), EUROMERSIVE (France) and AFRICA METAVERS ACADEMY (Africa).
This research and development project on XR motion detection solutions is supported by the TWIST cluster as part of CREATHRIV-EU. Its aim is to facilitate the appropriation of avatars and virtual environments by audiovisual and performing arts professionals. The initiative was co-created with TECHNOCITÉ XR academy, start-up N-Gone and MIIL UCL's innovation center, to support the development of integrated Walloon solutions and their outreach in Africa. The program closes with the presentation of a demo workshop in the innovation village of the MASA 2024 festival in Abidjan.
This program included 3 introductory workshops in new technologies, co-produced in 2023 with XR4Europe thanks to the support of INNOVIRIS. Inspired by the methodology of "Living Labs", the PLAY2LEARN format builds short professional training courses around case studies, to help artists and professionals in the cultural, tourism and media sectors build their digital skills. A new training offer will be launched in 2024 thanks to a partnership with the LE GROW media studio in Brussels.
The 3rd edition of our incubator for heritage innovators was supported by INNOVIRIS and EQUAL-SPF Justice. Among the highlights: 10 weeks of inspiration and co-creation between students in cultural mediation (Master 1) from IHECS, historians and decolonial guides (CBAI - BAMKO) and a dozen mediators or cultural professionals from Brussels (Visit Brussels, Maison des Patrimoines Unesco Mons, Bozar, Brussels city museums...) aimed at exploring the potential of avatars and immersive technologies to revisit History from multiple angles. Two innovative prototypes have resulted: MIHIMPI, a Virtual Reality Experience around Jessie Fausset, and BRIBES, a decolonial journey in augmented reality at the Cinquantenaire.
This 10-day residency, co-funded by Innoviris and the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (via Images&3D), aimed to bring together and mobilize the Belgian and African winners of the avatars du Patrimoine competition at two major events for the digital cultural industries: STEREOPSIA, the European Immersive forum, and the KIKK festival in Namur. An opportunity to develop and test protocols and standards for the co-creation, circulation and distribution of 3D content for heritage professionals on an international scale. The event resulted in a catalog of demo avatars showcasing the pioneers of Pan-Africanism in Belgium.
This event, the highlight of the THE LAB incubator and the AVATARS DU PATRIMOINE 2023 residency, was organized as part of a call for projects initiated by EQUAL-SPF Justice to educate and raise awareness about the International Decade for People of African Descent. The project's outputs included a Youtube live show co-produced with comedians from the LE SBEUL troupe, featuring virtual dialogues between Paul Panda Farnana, Mama Sambo, Jessie Fausset and Web du Bois and 4 Belgian guests of African descent. An opportunity to take stock of the evolution of racism in public spaces in Belgium since the Pan-African Congress of 1921.
Launched in September 2023, this partnership offers a fantastic showcase and XXL experimentation laboratory for digital artists and creators. The INVISIBLE FESTIVAL exhibition offers to showcase this through a rich program co-created with our 2023 talent cohort, thanks to the support of National Lottery players, the Brussels-Capital Region and the Over the Reality solution.
Agenda Agenda
The INVISIBLE Festival exhibition, conferences and events will take place in Brussels (Tour & Taxi - Shed 2) as part of the Printemps Numérique event on March 22 and 23, 2024. Activities in BLUE are free of charge for all festival visitors.
Info & booking about Printemps Numérique.
The B2B nomad program runs from March 21 to 24, 2024.
Activities in BLACK are limited to B2B accreditation holders.
| INVISIBLE FESTIVAL | Thursday, March 21 Brussels-Mons | Friday, March 22 Brussels | Saturday, March 23 Brussels | Sunday, March 24 Brussels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Program overview | DISCOVERY TOUR including 3 events + 1 networking lunch | #BRUXSLSART EXHIBITION 9AM to 6:30PM at Printemps Numérique | #BRUXSLSART EXHIBITION From 10AM to 6PM at Printemps Numérique | WORKSHOP at the Women in Art Biennial |
| Morning Before 12:00PM | Event 1 HERITAGE AVATAR in Brussels at Studio Le Grow | Pecha kucha INVISIBLES CLUB (FR) in the Agora MediaHub zone Conference 1 FUTURE OF MUSEUMS (FR) | Conference 3 « À NOUS LA RUE (FR) » LIVESTREAM GAMING | |
| Lunch Between 12:00PM and 2:00PM | Networking lunch organized by GRAPPE XR Wallonne at the MIC in Mons. | Networking lunch DIGITAL INTER/SECTION Private session for the immersive installation NOIRE (60') + Guided tour HALL OF FAME (60') | Networking lunch Networking lunch XR4EUROPE ARTECOM.IO and gallery BXL ART NFT Guided tour of CIRCUIT AUGMENTÉ by OVER THE REALITY (45’) | Guided tour of the BIENNALE WOMEN IN ART (45’) |
| Afternoon 1 Between 2:00PM and 6:00PM | Event 2 COCREATION & SMART CITY at MIC in Mons. event 3 ANIMATED ARCHIVES at CLICK in Mons. | Round table 1 TALENT & TRAINING Round table (FR) Agora MediaHub Conference 2 MEDIA OF THE FUTURE (English) Conference room | LIVESTREAM VR Conference 4 À NOUS L’HISTOIRE (FR) | WORKSHOP #À NOUS L’HISTOIRE |
| Evening After 6PM | Opening night + invitation to the PRINTEMPS NUMÉRIQUE preview screening |
The Invisibles Club The Invisibles Club
Buy your B2B accreditation now to reserve your place at the Invisible Festival.
Price: 450 euros.
The B2B ticket includes access to
- the Discovery Tour - a nomadic event organized by Stereopsia: Thursday, March 21, 2024 (including round-trip transportation from Brussels)
-The Premium INVISIBLE Festival at Printemps Numérique: Friday March 22 and Saturday March 23, 2024 in Brussels - Tour & Taxi - Shed 2
(includes access to 2 networking events, the private session of the installation Noire, the guided tour of the Hall of Fame experience, the guided tour of the Circuit Augmenté and the opening night at Printemps Numérique)
- the #À NOUS L'HISTOIRE Workshop at the Women in Art Biennial: Sunday, March 24, 2024 in Brussels - Espace Vanderborght (includes access to a guided tour of the exhibition)
Partners and sponsors Partners and sponsors
Nos lieux hôtes 2024 en partenariat avec 3 événements partenaires
FAQ
- Contact us here to tell us about your needs and expectations. We're always happy to establish new partnerships.
Yes. Send your proposals via the call for submissions here, and subscribe to XR4Heritage's social media accounts for all the latest news.
Yes, send us your proposals via the call for entries here, and subscribe to the XR4heritage social media accounts for all the latest news.