Vibe: Active Activism Act
We all suffered during the COVID pandemic – but none more so than Gen Z, who missed out on all the parties, culture and life experiences that make being young so fun. To kickstart their return to the real world, we launched a new ‘phygital’ exhibition – a live creative merger of physical and digital worlds at The Centre d’Arts Digitals IDEAL gallery space in Barcelona.
“This exhibition focuses on the search to break an extremely elitist vision of the museum.”
Insight
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IIn the aftermath of the pandemic the cultural sector was in upheaval, forcing museums and art institutions to transform the way they do things.
Vibe wanted to spearhead this change by making art and culture more accessible and authentic for Gen Z audiences, tasking us with creating a solution that was perfectly designed for our new hybrid, hyper-technological world.
Recent studies indicate that the mental health of Gen Zs has been affected: they spend less time in direct face-to-face contact with other people, and this is one reason why Generation Z has the highest ever generational reports of depression.
Studies show that communities thrive best when they work together, (Mental Health Foundation, 2020) so to meet Vibe’s challenge we knew that the future of public art and cultural spaces needed to be decided by Generation Z itself – and the influential voices that they respected and listened to the most.
This short summary video of Vibe: ‘Active Activism Act’ hopefully gives you a flavour of the event – but there was so much more to see. It gives us hope that the next generation have the passion and will to create a better world.
The contributors
Working in collaboration with the EU’s Creative Innovation Lab with 15 influencial Gen Z activists from 7 European countries, we curated ‘Active Activism Act’, an immersive and experiential exhibition that broke the traditional museum mould.
Fronted by transvestite, singer, model and philanthropist Samantha Hudson we used voice notes, stickers, videos, screenshots and texts to share poetry installations, live concerts, projections, screenings, light shows, dance acts, protest marches and memes... all over the world, in real-time.
Results
The Vibe event – the first of its kind in the world – garnered more than 84 global media mentions including Spotify, Azeema, Emergent Magazine, Metal Magazine, Magma Cultura, & Timeout.
A record 126,000 people viewed the exhibition at the Sonar+D Festival, with over 3,400 visitors to the The Centre d’Arts Digitals IDEAL gallery space in Barcelona. A followup exhibition is planned next year.
“This is a pioneering exhibition by and for Generation Z, which gives visibility to new forms of digital activism through dissidence, protest and action on youth issues.
It is the end of this page, though. We said that.