In 2008, artist Frédéric Camilleri, known as Tehos, was looking for a place to exhibit his work in Nice. He discovered Museaav, a private museum located on Place Garibaldi, dedicated to new technologies applied to art.
This hybrid cultural space hosted artists working with digital tools, video, contemporary painting, and street art.
It was in this context that Tehos first encountered emerging artistic practices linked to digital media and virtual worlds.
That same year, he attended a presentation by artist Patrick Moya, who had created an entire artistic island within the Second Life metaverse.
This demonstration marked the beginning of Tehos’s own research into virtual environments as new spaces for artistic creation and dissemination.
Tehos began learning 3D modelling and digital design tools, notably using Cinema 4D, and met the founders of the association Pirats Art Network, Newbab Zigmond and Merlina Rocoko, both active in Second Life.
He acquired his first virtual plot of land, located near the Museaav’s digital counterpart within the metaverse, where he presented his first exhibitions.
From these early experiments emerged the project known as the Tehos Art Lab — a virtual exhibition space structured in the shape of a T with a central patio. This configuration would later become the architectural signature of the project in its subsequent versions.
Between 2008 and 2013, Tehos took part in numerous international virtual exhibitions, including Through the Virtual Looking Glass (organised by the Pirats association in partnership with several universities in Boston, the Netherlands, and Australia), and Arkaos, a collaborative project bringing together multiple artists around a dreamlike, interactive architectural structure.
He also collaborated with the Museo del Metaverso in Italy, which gathered artists such as Rose Borchowsky and Saulkide Auer.
The Tehos Art Lab soon became a digital laboratory for experimentation, where he developed immersive projects such as Suspensions Immersives and Arbres Cinétiques (Kinetic Trees), combining algorithmic art and three-dimensional structures.
These works were recognised in 2009 with the Professional Jury Prize from IAP UNESCO.
In 2013, the organisers of Art Monaco commissioned Tehos to produce a virtual version of the fair.
For this purpose, he digitally recreated the Grimaldi Forum within Second Life, while coordinating a simultaneous event in Barranquilla (Colombia), in collaboration with the Barranquillarte Art Fair.
The project involved nearly 80 international galleries and the presentation of several thousand digital artworks.
Following this major undertaking, the artist temporarily suspended his activity in virtual worlds due to the technical and economic constraints associated with Second Life.
From the late 2010s onwards, the evolution of immersive technologies and the emergence of platforms accessible directly through web browsers facilitated Tehos’s return to virtual environments.
He relaunched the Tehos Art Lab on the Spatial platform, where 3D modelling is created externally before being imported into the virtual space.
The new version of the Tehos Art Lab retained its original T-shaped configuration and hosted both solo exhibitions and collective projects.
The space once again became a meeting point for artists and a place for experimentation, now adapted to contemporary technological contexts.
Several exhibitions have since been presented:
A Momentary Collapse of Reason (2022)
The Ocean Room, a deconstructed structure addressing the theme of ocean pollution (2022)
Tehos Art Lab Retrospective, Centre Culturel Prince Jacques, Monaco–Beausoleil (2023)
Space Dedicated to Artists from Nice (2023)
Mediterranéo Exhibition, in partnership with ISCOM Nice and IED Rome, for a project initiated by ISCOM (2023)
In 2024, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of UNESCO’s arrival in Monaco, creation of a space dedicated to exhibiting artists from the AIAP–UNESCO.
In the mid-2000s, under the arcades of Place Garibaldi, a unique art space emerged: the Museaav, short for Musée-Usine / Espace d’Art Actuel et Virtuel — “Museum-Factory / Space for Contemporary and Virtual Art.”
Located in a former biscuit factory covering nearly 1,000 m², the venue quickly became a meeting point for artists exploring the intersection of contemporary art, technology, and visual experimentation.
Opened in October 2006, the Museaav served simultaneously as a gallery, workshop, and forum. Exhibitions, projections, performances, and debates unfolded within its raw industrial setting. Its proximity to the MAMAC and its open, collaborative atmosphere attracted young creators and established artists alike. The notion of a “museum-factory” took root — a place of production rather than representation, where creation was shown in motion.
By 2008, the Museaav had clearly positioned itself at the frontier of virtual worlds.
Artist Patrick Moya presented his work created within Second Life, through interactive conferences and large-screen projections.
He inaugurated what was described as a “Virtual Laboratory”, linking Nice to his digital island inside the metaverse.
These live demonstrations fascinated audiences discovering, often for the first time, the immersive possibilities of virtual art.
The Museaav thus became an early observatory for artistic creation online.
Within this innovative atmosphere, Tehos (Frédéric Camilleri) held his first exhibition at the Museaav in 2009.
His works — blending photography, digital art, and video — explored the shifting boundary between inner experience and virtual worlds.
This show marked the arrival of a new generation of Niçoise artists working across the physical and digital realms.
The Museaav, once again, acted as a relay point for hybrid and connected aesthetics.
In the spring of 2010, the Museaav took a decisive step forward by hosting the first mixed-reality exhibition, simultaneously displayed in a physical venue and a virtual world.
From April 7 to May 7, 2010, visitors could explore the exhibition both at the Museaav in Nice and within Second Life, featuring ten international artists:
Cadel (France) – Cadel Aboubakar in SL
Casper Frederiksen (Denmark) – Binary Quandry in SL
David Ribet (France) – Dari Undercroft in SL
Jeffrey Lipsky (USA) – Filthy Fluno in SL
Melina M. (France) – Ling Serenity in SL
Patrick Moya (France) – Moya Janus in SL
Peter Mc Lane (France) – Pipit Ziplon in SL
Shellina Winkler & Solkide Auer (Italy) – digital artists
Steff Para (France) – Tshirtkikill Straaf in SL
Tehos (France) – Tehos Quar in SL
This pioneering event was organized in partnership with the PIRATS, CARP, and Carleon collectives, connecting France, Australia, the United States, and the Netherlands around a shared artistic experience.
It stands today as one of the earliest documented examples of co-presence between a real-world exhibition and a metaverse installation, anticipating the mixed-reality art practices that would emerge more than a decade later.
Just a few months later, in September 2010, Tehos returned to the Museaav with his groundbreaking exhibition “Suspensions immersives” — a series of works entirely created within Second Life and re-projected into the physical space of the museum.
The installation — combining large-scale projections, suspended images, and avatars — immersed the audience in a sensory environment blending tangible and virtual realities.
The event, covered by France 3 Côte d’Azur television, marked the height of the Museaav’s experimental period: a place where digital art became an immersive, shared experience.
Between 2008 and 2012, the Museaav hosted an impressive range of events:
Group exhibitions (Museaavirtualitées, Rencontre des arts),
Audiovisual performances,
Experimental concerts and screenings,
Conferences on art markets and digital creation.
Local and international artists, students, musicians, and video creators found in it a space of freedom and experimentation.
Neither an institution nor a commercial gallery, the Museaav embodied a poetic form of resistance — an independent cultural hub rooted in Nice yet connected to the world.
Although never part of the city’s official museum network, the Museaav played a crucial role in the local recognition of digital art and immersive creation.
It laid the groundwork for later developments in mixed-reality and metaverse-based art practices.
Its archives today remain fragmentary, but the surviving accounts confirm its historical significance:
a precursor of creative third-places, a bridge between the real and the virtual, and a hidden matrix of much of the Niçoise digital scene that followed.
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2006 | Opening of the Museaav – inaugural exhibition “Rencontre de l’inéluctable” (Tassou) |
| 2008 | Launch of the Virtual Laboratory and first Second Life projections (Patrick Moya) |
| 2009 | Tehos’ first exhibition (photography, digital art, video) |
| Apr–May 2010 | First mixed-reality exhibition (Museaav/Second Life) featuring ten international artists |
| Sept 2010 | Suspensions immersives by Tehos – metaverse-born works, France 3 coverage |
| 2013–2014 | Group shows (Rencontre des arts, Handic’Art II) – last recorded public events |