On December 7, join Villa Albertine and FilmGate Interactive Media Festival in Miami for an evening celebrating immersive experiences with live music and performance art with French and American art leaders, artist talks, and the reveal of Villa Albertine’s French Immersion grant winners.
Villa Albertine and FilmGate Interactive Media Festival will celebrate immersive visionary creation, connecting French and American leaders and artists from the contemporary and digital art worlds. This event will unveil Villa Albertine’s French Immersion exhibition grantees, an initiative designed to empower the next generation of immersive creators in the U.S.
Step out for a vibrant cultural evening, featuring the finest creatives and art lovers from our community!
With T.J Black, Associate Director of Institutional Giving at the Bass Museum, Mohamed Bouabdallah, Cultural Counselor of France and Director of Villa Albertine, and Diliana Alexander, Director of FilmGate Miami.
6:40pm – The Reveal of the French Immersion Exhibition Grantees
With the grantees and Vincent Florant, Director of Villa Albertine’s Film, TV and New Media Department.
6:50pm – Expert Panel Discussion: “The Immersive Revolution: Redefining Art and Audience Engagement“
With Paul Mourey, Head of Digital at the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Margot Mottaz, Head of Curatorial, Superblue; Alain C. Brush, Global Head of Digital Platforms, Art Basel; and Nonny de la Peña, Program Director of ASU’s Narrative and Emerging Media Program.
This panel discussion aims to establish a framework for understanding contemporary art in the context of advancements in AI and New Media, exploring what defines this evolving artistic experience. The conversation will delve into how immersive experiences transform the dynamics between immersive artworks and various stakeholders, such as audiences, collectors, galleries, and institutions. Participants will share insights into the opportunities and challenges they have encountered. Lastly, the session will examine how immersive art can strengthen community bonds, encourage dialogue, and promote cultural exchange, with a focus on amplifying underrepresented voices. Collaboration between artists, technologists, and institutions will be highlighted as essential for navigating this rapidly changing landscape.
7:15pm – Artist Conversation
With Salomé Chatriot, visual artist, and Nancy Baker, New Media artist.
A discussion exploring their artistic practices, relationships with institutions, the art worlds of New York and France, and the concept of symbiosis—an interspecies relationship that is central to their work.
7:45 – Performance: Fragile Ecosystem by Salomé Chatriot
Fragile Ecosystem is a series of performances that examine the interplay between human and machines. In this immersive work, Chatriot’s breathing is captured in real-time through a medical spirometer, which then influences visual and auditory elements, creating a responsive environment. Originally set in a Parisian paper mill, later performances centered on Chatriot’s body as the main component, with projections that intensified based on her breathing, blending organic and mechanical worlds. This exploration of bodily fragility and symbiosis emphasizes her vision of interconnected existence in a technologically driven society.
Paul Mourey is an expert in communication and digital strategy. After more than a decade advising both French and international top-tier brands, institutions, and start-ups on their innovation and communication strategies (including ELLE, Thalys, Orange, Yuka, Caisse des Dépôts, the Agence Française de Développement, and France Télévisions), he has been leading the digital strategy for the Centre Pompidou in Paris since 2018.
The museum, with 3 million visitors per year and which has since doubled its digital audience, was one of the first to introduce NFT artworks into its national collection; won the Cannes Lions Grand Prix for its viral ad campaign; and was awarded the Cannes Grand Prix for Colored, an augmented reality artwork produced by Novaya.
Margot is a Swiss-American curator based in the United Kingdom. She is the Head of Curatorial at Superblue, a groundbreaking enterprise dedicated to producing, presenting, and engaging the public with experiential art. She joined the company prior to its launch to foster artist relations and develop curatorial strategies for Superblue’s centers. She works closely with artists on special projects, and leads significant institutional and corporate partnerships with a focus on new artwork commissions.
Since 2019, Margot has additionally acted as Curatorial Advisor to the Director of Wehrmuehle, a vibrant exhibition space and artist residency near Berlin, and more recently to visual artist Yulia Mahr and Studio Richter Mahr. She frequently appears on panels with a particular expertise on immersion and interactivity in contemporary art practices, and was a first-round judge for the Lumen Prize for Digital Art between 2015 and 2021. She also sustains a personal interest in East Asian contemporary art through regular contributions to online and print publications.
She brings to these roles a decade of international experience in the creative industries, having previously held curatorial, editorial, and marketing positions at Tate Modern (London), Lumen Art Projects (Global), Asia Now (Paris), and Tatler Asia (Hong Kong), among others.
Margot is a graduate from the Courtauld Institute of Art and the University of Edinburgh.
Nonny de la Peña
Program Director of ASU's Narrative and Emerging Media program
Nonny de la Peña, often referred to as the “Godmother of Virtual Reality,” is a pioneering journalist, filmmaker, and virtual reality (VR) innovator. She is the founder of Emblematic Group, a company focused on immersive storytelling and the development of VR experiences that bring attention to critical social and humanitarian issues. De la Peña combines her background in journalism with cutting-edge VR technology to create immersive environments that allow viewers to experience stories from a first-person perspective, evoking empathy and a profound sense of connection.
Her groundbreaking work includes projects like Hunger in Los Angeles, a VR experience that lets users witness a food bank line where a man collapses from a diabetic crisis. This project, showcased at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012, is credited as one of the first to demonstrate the emotional and narrative potential of VR in journalism.
Throughout her career, de la Peña has continued to push the boundaries of immersive media, focusing on social issues such as homelessness, war, climate change, and immigration. Her pioneering work has earned her recognition in both the tech and media industries, and she has been featured in various prestigious publications and conferences around the world.
Alain C. Brusch holds the position of Global Head of Digital Platforms at Art Basel, where he is integral to the digital evolution of one of the world’s most influential art fairs. His role centers on overseeing and expanding Art Basel’s digital presence, aligning the organization’s online platforms with its mission of connecting galleries, artists, collectors, and art enthusiasts across a digital landscape. Under his leadership, the digital platforms provide support for Art Basel’s fairs in Basel, Miami Beach, Hong Kong, and, most recently, Paris, reflecting the distinctive art cultures of each location while enhancing Art Basel’s brand in the contemporary art world.
Brusch is a member of the Art Basel leadership team, which is responsible for setting strategic goals that span gallery relations, content development, marketing, and international partnerships. His expertise in digital strategy has been pivotal in broadening Art Basel’s reach and ensuring a seamless integration of digital tools into the fair’s operations. This integration supports Art Basel’s commitment to accessibility, allowing global audiences to experience the fairs’ offerings beyond the in-person events.
Nancy Baker Cahill is a transdisciplinary artist and experienced filmmaker. Her hybrid practice focuses on systemic power, consciousness, and the human body through ecological thinking. She creates research-based immersive experiences, video installations, and conceptual projects rooted in the history of drawing. Her monumental AR artworks extend and subvert the lineage of land art, often highlighting civics and a desire for more equitable futures. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of 4th Wall, a free, AR public art platform exploring site interventions, resistance, and inclusive creative expression.
Her globally exhibited AR installations have earned her profiles in the New York Times, Frieze, and The Art Newspaper, among others. In 2023, the Georgia Museum of Art exhibited her first solo mid-career survey, which will travel through 2025. The Whitney Museum of American Art commissioned and acquired CENTO, the museum’s first participatory AR project co-built by a global audience, now permanently on view. She premiered her groundbreaking immersive film SEEK in July 2024 at Cosm Los Angeles, marking the venue’s inaugural art experience.
Baker Cahill is an artist scholar alumnus of the Berggruen Institute and a TEDx speaker. In 2021, she was awarded the Williams College Bicentennial Medal of Honor and a C.O.L.A. Master Artist Fellowship. She is a 2022 LACMA Art and Tech Grant recipient, winner of the 2024 Infinity Festival’s Monolith Award for New Media Fine Art, and 2024-5 Harvard metaLAB Affiliate.
Her work is held in the collections of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; The Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA; RFC Art Collection, Miami, FL; and 0x Collection, Prague, CZ.
Salomé Chatriot (1995) is based in Paris. Since 2019, she has been deploying her breath through Fragile Ecosystem, a series of procedural performances hosted in different contexts with which she interacts through a medical machine capturing her breath in real time: a spirometer. The artist’s breath generates biodata that inform the matrix of the other media she uses: painting, sculpture, installations and videos. In 2021, Salomé Chatriot was selected by Cécilia Alemani for the Biennale College Arte workshop at the 59th Venice Biennale.
She directed her first film, Our Symbiosis Infected her Fertile Systems, commissioned by Boris Magnini and produced by Unfinished Camp, based on a proposal by Hans-Ulrich Obrist and András Szantó. The film has been shown at the Shed Museum in New York and at the HEK in Basel. Salomé Chatriot has performed at Lafayette Anticipations and the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, in Gstaad with the Luma Foundation, and at the Teatros del Canal in Madrid. A selection of her films, videos, paintings and sculptures are currently on display at Germany’s Marta Herford Museum, as part of an exhibition exploring the intersecting relationships between art and technology: Between Pixel and Pigment.
