Tehos
Aggiunto il 28 nov 2025
The Collective History of Artistic Metaverses: From Pioneers to Heirs
The Collective History of Artistic Metaverses: From Pioneers to Heirs\ Culture & Digital
As metaverses and artificial intelligence are now central to the artistic debate, it is essential to remember that this revolution began much earlier. From the mid-2000s, visionary artists invested in Second Life and other virtual worlds to invent a new territory for creation. Their collective and experimental approach laid the foundations for what is now called metaverse
The First Explorers (2006–2008)\
In 2006, the duo Eva & Franco Mattes presented "13 Most Beautiful Avatars," a series of avatar portraits exhibited in physical galleries, blurring the boundaries between real and virtual. That same year, the collective Second Front launched Dadaist and Fluxus performances in Second Life, paving the way for a digital performance aesthetic. In 2007, the French artist Patrick Moya created Île Moya, a complete artistic universe where their avatar became a work of art in itself. In Italy, Roxelo Babenco founded the Museo del Metaverso, the first virtual museum dedicated to digital.
Collective Networks and Major Exhibitions (2009–2010)\
From 2009, initiatives multiplied. The Pirats Art Network became one of the largest artistic networks in the metaverse: 20,000 m² of virtual galleries, 330 artists exhibited, 154 exhibitions, and more than 345,000 visitors. On the Îles Bourbon, the Art Khaos project brought together a dozen international artists in a collaborative approach. Tehos set up the Tehos art lab on Second Life.\ In 2010, “Through the Virtual Looking Glass” brought together more than 40 artists from 14 countries for an unprecedented experience: a distributed exhibition, presented simultaneously in Second Life and in physical institutions. Led by the Pirats Art Network with the Museo del Metaverso and international partners, it anchored metaverse art in both a real and symbolic geography: the Museaav in Nice, Europe, and the Harbor Gallery at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, USA.
A Constellation of Artists and Collectives\
Among the artists and organisers are Newbab Zsigmond, Merlina Rokocoko, Tehos, Patrick Moya, Solkide Auer, Shellina Winkler, Binary Quandry, Georg Janick (Dr. Gary Zabel), Eupalinos Ugajin, Ux Hax, Maya Paris, Peter Mac Lane, and many others.\ Their immersive works—3D sculptures, interactive environments, sound and visual scenographies—exploit the unique capabilities of virtual worlds (prims, video textures, surface hyperlinks, multi-user interaction).
The Institutional Shift\
The originality of the exhibition lies in its dual anchoring. On one hand, the virtual space allows for simultaneous and global scenography; on the other, physical venues (Museaav, Harbor Gallery) provide an institutional and critical framework. This hybrid setup is a milestone: the metaverse ceases to be merely an experimental ground and enters the realm of recognised exhibitions, on par with established contemporary practices.
Legacies and Continuities\
This multi-site model inspired other initiatives, strengthening the bridges between virtual communities and cultural institutions. It reinforced the role of collectives (Pirats, Museo del Metaverso, Virtual Art Initiative) and highlighted the value of a shared history, where each artist—including Tehos—contributes to the founding narrative of artistic metaverses.
Individual Trajectories in a Collective Movement\
In this vibrant context, several artists developed unique approaches while remaining connected to this global movement.\ Rose Borchovski (Saskia Boddeke) creates immersive narrative installations ("The Inevitability of Fate," "Echoes in the Garden"), presented in Second Life and in physical museums (Berlin, Moscow, Warsaw), often in collaboration with Peter Greenaway.\ Bryn Oh imagines poetic and immersive environments, supported by the Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA).\ Gazira Babeli, an avatar-artist, has been developing conceptual performances since 2006, embedding net.art in the metaverse.\ Nathaniel Stern explores phygital performances ("Given Time," 2008), connecting body and avatar.\ Tehos founded the Tehos Art Lab in 2009, presented "Les Suspensions immersives" at Museaav (2010), received the AIAP UNESCO Jury Prize for "Les Arbres cinétiques" (2011), and organised the first virtual contemporary art fair for Opus Eventi, Art Monaco (2013), bringing together 80 galleries from many countries and 8,000 works of art.
Towards Contemporary Hybridity (2015–2025)\
The Museo del Metaverso continues its activities on Craft World, while Patrick Moya published in 2020 "Ma vie dans le métavers," a testimony to a life devoted entirely to virtual art. Collective exhibitions continue to multiply, and metaverses have become a field of experimentation for NFTs, AI, and hybrid installations. In 2025, several artists, including Tehos, are exploring the hybridity between art, AI, and metaverses, connecting the tangible and the virtual.
Conclusion\
The history of artistic metaverses is that of a collective avant-garde, where solitary explorers, visionary collectives, and pioneering institutions intersect. Eva & Franco Mattes, Second Front, Patrick Moya, Rose Borchovski, Bryn Oh, Gazira Babeli, Nathaniel Stern, Tehos, and many others have together built a founding narrative. Each has contributed a unique stone to the edifice, but it is the constellation of their initiatives—both collective and individual—that makes this history a key milestone in contemporary art.
Sources
https://rhizome.org/editorial/2006/dec/01/13-most-beautiful-avatars/
https://archive.nt2.uqam.ca/nt2-3/en/repertoire/13-most-beautiful-avatars.html
https://secondfront.org/
https://www.moyapatrick.com/sltourisme.htm
https://www.sbpg-projects.com/secondlife
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saskia_Boddeke
Sources pour Throught the Virtual looking glass :
https://magazine.art21.org/2010/04/22/beyond-boundaries-art-exhibition-virtual-3d-worlds/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5-TOofb1ss
https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/28128/chapter-abstract/212323843?redirectedFrom=fulltext
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0cKbXWSc84&list=PLE9Pn8J9ylV3pWPn3ESE2jpY0ex90sDHj&index=4